The exhibition "Stop Making Sense" presents nine artists who live and work in Israel and whose backgrounds are Europe, Maghreb, the Middle East, or Palestine (Israel before 1948). The purpose of the exhibition is to call attention to the complex cultural identities, the artistic legacy and the socio-political orientations that engage contemporary artists who live and work in Israel. The participating artists represent different ways of approaching their own background, history and identity, what it means to be a working artist in a region that is geographically peripheral but which, at the same time, constitutes a medial and political focal point, a region in which some identify themselves towards the West (white) and others towards the East (black). Several of the artists participating in Stop Making Sense have chosen to work with different kinds of fractured narration, consciously mixing the signals, creating mixtures of fiction, reality and fantasy. An intricate pattern emerges, which leaves the visitor disoriented and confused rather than enlightened and clear-sighted.
The title of the exhibition, "Stop Making Sense", comes from Jonathan Demme’s film from 1984, which documents the 1983 Talking Heads tour Speaking in Tongues. In Girlfriend is Better David Byrne sings ”As we get older and stop making sense; You won't find her waiting long; Stop making sense, stop making sense... stop making sense, making sense”. David Byrne designed the cover for the album himself, on which the words Speaking in Tongues were written SP EAK IN GI N TO NGU ES. Speaking in tongues is a well-known phenomenon in many cultures, and is seen as an expression of spiritual inspiration, as when prayer brings you into a spiritual state of mind, in which God speaks to you through your body, often in a language that is incomprehensible to you, a nonsense language. As individuals, we have probably all at some time found ourselves in a situation that seems fixed, and the only way of progressing is to let go of our conventional, prejudiced thinking for a brief instant. Stop Making Sense encourages us to let go, to climb out of the frames in order to examine the irrational and absurd.
A reader is published in paperback in connection with the exhibition with essays by Tal Ben Zvi, Simon Njami, Ella Habiba Shohat and Irit Rogoff, along with presentations of the artists and a text by curator Marianne Hultman.
A seminar will be held the same day of the opening (March 19), from 9:30AM until 4:00PM, with the following key speakers: Tal Ben Zvi, Simon Njami, Irit Rogoff and Asaf Zippor. The seminar will be moderated by Marith Hope. To register for the seminar, please send an e-mail to seminar@oslokunstforening.no. The price for participation is 200NOK and includes the exhibition publication, lunch and refreshments.
Tal Ben Zvi is an Israeli curator who has mainly focused on exposing the otherness within Israeli society through exhibitions such as Mother Tongue and the representation of Palestinian artists at the Hagar Art Gallery in Jaffa (2001-2003). She is currently completing her doctoral thesis at Tel Aviv University on Nakba Representations in Contemporary Palestinian Art. In 2009 she curated the exhibition Men in the Sun, together with Hanna Farrah Kufer Bir’im, at the Herzeliya Museum of Cotemporary Art.
Simon Njami, is an independent art critic, curator, lecturer, essayist and novelist. He is co-founder of the cultural magazine Revue Noire. Njami was chief curator and artist director for the Bamako Photography Biennale from 2000 to 2007. He was co-curator with Fernando Alvim on the first African Pavilion, Check-List Luanda Pop, at the Venice Biennale in 2007. He has curated numerous exhibitions of African contemporary art, including Africa Remix and the first African Art Fair in Johannesburg in 2008. In 2010 the exhibition A Collective Diary, curated by Simon Njami, will open at the Herzeliya Museum of Contemporary Art in Israel.
Irit Rogoff is a theorist, curator and organizer who writes for the intersections of the critical, the political and contemporary arts practices. Rogoff is Professor of Visual Culture at Goldsmiths College London University, a department she founded in 2002. Her work with a series of new 'think tank' PhD programs at Goldsmiths (Research Architecture, Curatorial/Knowledge) is focusing on the possibility of exchanging knowledge across professional practices; self generated forums, academic institutions and individual enthusiasms. Publications include; "Museum Culture" (1997) "Terra Infirma - Geography's Visual Culture" (2001), "A.C.A.D.E.M.Y" (2006) "Unbounded - Limits Possibilities" (2008) and forthcoming "Looking Away - Participating Singularities, Ontological Communities" (2010). Curatorial work includes; De-Regulation with the work of Kutlug Ataman (2005-8) ACADEMY (2006), "Summit - Non Aligned Initiatives in education Culture" (2007).
Asaf Zippor was one of the creators and head writer of The Chamber Quintet (1993-1998), a satirical sketch show that became a classic immediately on its release, winning international awards, including the Rose d'or at the Montreux Festival in 1998. Since then the show has been broadcast on Israeli TV in reruns for the past decade. Asaf Zippor has also written shows such as The Bourgeoisie, a drama-comedy series, and Around the World, a comic mocumentary depicting the backstage of an Israeli travelling TV show. He wrote for both seasons of the series In Treatment that was translated into English and sold to HBO in the United States, where it received great acclaim and many awards. Dianne West received an Emmy for her role in the series, the role was written by Asaf Zippor. He also served as a screenplay editor for many television shows and Israeli movies, and has also translated plays for the theatre. His first book of short stories, The Gifted, was published during 2009 and has won critical acclaim. Asaf Zippor holds the position as Head of Script Writing Studies at the Department of Film and Television at the Tel-Aviv University.
Marith Ann Hope, educated as an artist and art historian. Previous Director of the National Touring Exhibitions, Norway. Curated several exhibitions, among them: Sanaa Africa, Contemporary Art from South Africa, Vietnam Express, Living Traditions (Pakistan), Trans//Form and Absences (South America) with David Elliott.
The exhibition, seminar and reader are produced by Oslo Kunstforening/Oslo Fine Art Society with support from the Norwegian Cultural Council, Morgenstjernen (The Morning Star) Foundation, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Freedom of Expression Foundation Oslo (Fritt Ord).
On March 18 at 11AM, there will be a press opening, where all artists will be present and available for interviews.
Please contact Marianne Hultman at either marianne@oslokunstforening.no or +47 22 42 32 65.
Image: Nira Pereg, Bad Luck, Tel-Aviv, Israel (2007), series of 12 c-prints