MONUMENT
video installation
19 October – 24 November, 2002
Galleri F 15 Projectroom
Alby Gård Pb. 1033 Jeløy
N-1510 Moss / Norway
The photograph showing writer Knut Hamsun at the age of 80 is torn up. Over and over again.
The destruction of the picture is repeatedly undertaken again: the endless loop of tape makes certain the process never comes to an end.
The video installation entitled »Monument« by artist duo Carlesso & Carlesso in the project room at the Gallery F 15 in Moss deals with the trauma which the behavior of Norway’s renowned novelist caused among his fellow countrymen. Knut Hamsun himself destroyed the myth that was created about him, namely that he was a herald of Norwegian national identity and culture. And in the history of that country he has played the part not of hero but of anti-hero, as was shown by the response to the 50th anniversary of his death – the “Knut Hamsun” topic remains as controversial as ever in Norway today.
The German artist couple concentrates in their piece on the portrait of the author as an object for any sort of projection. The video installation was accompanied by the exhibition »Memoria«, which Carlesso & Carlesso were simultaneously showing in the G.U.N. Gallery in Oslo.
»Memoria« takes up the theme of the portrait of the author as an icon / anti-icon, and also addresses issues of remembrance, forgetting, and repression that have played a decisive role for the reception of Knut Hamsun and his literary work.
Visitors are invited to come to terms with Hamsun.
In the gallery room, a computer voice can be heard endlessly repeated, quoting the death sentence Hamsun essentially penned for himself: his obituary on Adolf Hitler.
A key part of the exhibition was the presence of Carlesso & Carlesso in the gallery as part of the »Art of Hospitality« gallery project
The video »Monument« was also shown at:
G.U.N.
Galleri Uten Navn
OSLO / Norway
20 – 26 October, 2002
Galleria A+A
Venice / Italy
»esseri contemporanei«
14 May – 14 June, 2003
Potenza Film Festival 2004
Potenza / Italy
»Infinite. Art/Philosophy, New Horizons of Meaning: Videoart«
26 – 29 January, 2004
Carlesso 