THE COLLECTION

In connection with the exhibition Candice Breitz: Love Story we are presenting works from the museum’s collection. Several of these are newly acquired and have interesting thematic conjunctions with the installation Love Story.

Trond Hugo Haugen’s large photographic work ‘A National Portrait (inspired by Eidsvold 1814’) from 2014 thematises our relationship with democracy. The photograph is based on a painting of the 112 men that wrote the Norwegian constitution in 1814. By having the 112 people in the picture represent a cross-section of the Norwegian population in 2014, Haugen touches upon the democratic ideal that the selected group should represent the people. Ane Hjort Guttu questions the role of the child in our society in the work ‘Freedom Requires Free People’ from 2011. In this film we meet 8-year-old Jens, who reflects upon his own situation in life, his school situation in particular. The film is highly relevant when it comes to the ongoing debate on the Norwegian schooling system.

The large installation ‘The Patient and the Hospital’ from 2014-15 by Per Inge Bjørlo fills up an entire room in the museum. Seven perforated steel screens protect a pile of welded steel rods that resemble life preservers. An unpleasantly bright light streams through the screens’ holes and cracks that create partly abstract forms. The hard materials and industrial lighting contrast strongly with the associations of screens as a form of protection, and flotation devices that can save lives. The title, The Patient and the Hospital, suggests themes addressed in much of Bjørlo’s oeuvre: psychiatry, mental states and human vulnerability.

Next door is Marit Aanestad’s ‘Copper House with Train of Steel Rings’ from 2005. The house made of copper seems to represent the manifestation of the idea of a house, or a home. The work addresses conditions that cause people to feel safe and at home, or insecure, rootless, vulnerable, estranged and perhaps forgotten. These themes are especially relevant at a time when millions are fleeing their homeland.

Victor Lind’s painting ‘Night’ from 1972 reflects upon another historical period where humans were driven from their homes. The painting is from a central series of works in Lind’s oeuvre, themed on the fate of Jews in Norway during World War II. The pictorial series focuses on Police Inspector Knut Rød – the man responsible for persecuting and deporting almost 700 Norwegian Jews. The series shows Rød in different situations. Night shows him on horseback, bending down with his face turned towards someone. Is it a prisoner? Or a Jew who had run away?

In the exhibition you will also find the painting ‘Feel Free to Discard It and Replace It with Something Else, IV’ by Trond Hugo Haugen from 2012, and four photos from the series ‘Strangeness – Attack’ by Lee Chia-Yu from 2012.