Chief honey monster #strikkeklubben // National Museum of Art // Oslo // 2023

Chief honey monster #strikkeklubben (2023) is now part of the National Museum of Art Collection <3

Ikke her. Ikke borte. (2022 - 23) // Deichman Bjørvika // Oslo // 2023 - 24

Ikke her. Ikke borte. (Not here. Not gone.) (2022 - 23) is on view at Deichman Bjørvika, Oslo, until February 2024.

Klag ikke under Stjernerne over Mangel paa lyse Punkter i dit Liv // FORMAT OSLO // Aug 10 - Sep 24, 2023

ELIN REBOLI MELBERG
Klag ikke under Stjernene over Mangel paa lyse Punkter i dit Liv 
(Do not complain under the stars about a lack of points of light in your life)

Elin Reboli Melberg often chooses time-consuming and detailed projects. One example is from 2011, when she built a room completely covered with mirror mosaics and glossy pictures. She has also often taken recourse in personal and challenging experiences, incorporating them into the creative process and allowing them to influence her materials, techniques and themes. When her father died in 2013, she embroidered his final text message to her in the work Elove (2014). Grieving took the form of a demanding and tactile work process that involved larger, softer and more nature-based materials than she had ever used before. During the pandemic the size of her textile works increased. Knitted works stretching from the ceiling to the floor, then flowing out across the floor, triggered a desire to be enveloped and protected. Many years ago, Melberg inherited one of her grandmother’s looms. She didn’t do anything with it for a long time, but with inspiration from Synnøve Anker Aurdal’s large exhibition at Astrup Fearnley Museum in 2022, the time finally came. While respecting traditions, Melberg wanted to retain the possibility to explore, experiment and make room for the imperfect, vulnerable and tactile aspects that also characterise her earlier works. She dyed yarn outdoors, using, among other things, plants from her own garden such as pine, rhubarb, tansy and lady’s mantle. In this exhibition one can find tension between the plant-dyed wool yarn and the brightly-coloured synthetic yarn. The exhibition title is an excerpt from the poem Mig Selv (Myself), written in 1841 by Henrik Wergeland.
 
Several artists, for instance Frida Hansen and Elisabeth Harr, have been significant for Melberg – initially as regards techniques, motifs and themes, and eventually also as ‘sisters in arms’. The works in the exhibition are once again marked by transformative experiences, this time relating to a whistleblowing case. In the winter of 2022–23, Melberg wrote a letter to the newspaper Stavanger Aftenblad in which she questioned an undemocratic political process that turned out to be in conflict with the rules of the EEA Agreement. Her published letter triggered a witch hunt on social media (SoMe) platforms: well-known control techniques were used to cast suspicion on Melberg and to degrade and ridicule her. After a new and democratic political process was implemented, it resulted in a different outcome. On one hand, this confirmed to Melberg that her reasons for reacting to the initial political process were valid, on the other hand, the attacks on SoMe increased.
 
When the harassment was at its most intense, Melberg gained support from the fighting spirit and social involvement of 20th-century Norwegian textile artists. She is deeply grateful to these artists, describing them as allowing her to ‘sit on their shoulders’, as it were, when they wove their political messages. In time-consuming and repetitive processes, there is also the opportunity for calmness, processing and healing. Memories become attached to the materials – for better and worse. Melberg, in this exhibition, takes ownership of the names she was called in the closed SoMe groups by using them as titles. She wants to shed light on how democracy becomes vulnerable when the possibility to point out injustice is threatened. Both locally and globally, the consequences for those who raise their voice can be so excruciating that they choose never to do it again. Observers from the sidelines are also dissuaded from speaking up. We see this when young, skilful politicians retreat from politics due to bullying and threats, and when whistleblowers in workplaces switch jobs or take sick leave. Melberg has demonstrated her political commitment for many years, both through her art and her participation in various committees and on boards, yet she has probably never been as personal as here. At the same time, this exhibition is about mechanisms that pervade power structures worldwide. Countries with democratic forms of government are in decline, and the consequences largely mark the news. The works on show can also have a strengthening and unifying function for others in similar situations. Melberg is in no doubt that she would whistleblow again, but the cost is high and support is vital.

The exhibition is supported by Arts Council Norway, Rogaland County, Stavanger Municipality and the Relief Fund for Visual Artists.
 
Mona Mørk
Art Historian

FESTSPILLENE I NORD-NORGE // TRUE NORTHERN ARTS FESTIVAL

Read more about it here: Å veve en festspillplakat

Konstellasjoner // Buer Gallery // 01.12 - 22.12.22

Group exhibition Konstellasjoner at Buer Gallery (Oslo) opens Thursday 1st of December 2022.

CRITIC´S CHOICE AWARD 2020 - 22

Elle Sofe Sara won the Critic´s Choice Award (2020 - 22) for the performance The Answer is Land, where I have made the set design. https://kritikerlaget.no/saker/dansekritikerprisen-2020-2022

With support from Norwegian Crafts and the Norwegian MFA’s Support Scheme for International Craft Projects

Enfolded (2020) goes into Stavanger Art Museums Collection (2021)

Photo: Ingun A. Mæhlum / Nordnorsk Art Museum

Elove (2014) goes into Stavanger Art Museums Collection (2020)

Photo: Bitmap

Enfolded//Oppland kunstsenter//Lillehammer(NO)//05.09 - 11.10.20

Enfolded

Det blåser
Men likevel holder du deg nær
Du er her
Du er nær
Jeg kjenner deg
Jeg kjenner meg i deg,
i hvert steg
Her
Tilstede
Jeg vil ikke glemme
Jeg vil ikke miste
Jeg vil ha deg her i tiden
Sting etter Sting
Med meg
Inntil
Nært
Ikke borte

Scenography: The moon installation in MÅNEmåne // Dybwikdans // Premiere Rogaland Theatre Dec 7., 2019.

Photo: Morten Berentsen

Vestkyst // Interface gallery // Oakland (USA) // 15.02 - 24.03.19

Interface is pleased to host an exhibition curated by the Norwegian, artist run space, Prosjektrom Normanns. Prosjektrom Normanns hosts site-specific and experimental exhibitions by national and international artists and curators. It is based in Stavanger, Norway and is directed by the Norwegian artists Margrethe Aanestad and Elin Melberg.

For the exhibition at Interface, the artists behind Prosjektrom Normanns have been invited to create a group show including their own work, in addition to other artists. The invited artists are Anders Sletvold Moe and Marit Roland, both Norwegian established contemporary artists. Prosjektrom Normanns has been collaborating with Anders and Marit over several years, and are proud to again have the chance to show their work along side theirs.

Conceptually the works will revolve around abstract expressions of universal existential themes, such as contrasts and dualities between fragility and strength, the eternal and ephemeral, and the liminal space where the human being is in lack of control between those states. In various ways, the artists explore these themes through materials and tactile expressions, from delicate, fragile paper works, solid sculptures to painting and textile.

The title, Vestkyst, literally means West Coast in Norwegian and references the artists’ journey from Stavanger, which is on the West Coast of Norway to the West Coast of the United States.

Please join us for a reception and artist talk on Saturday February 16th from 1 - 3 pm with Aanestad and Melberg of Prosjektrom Normanns. They will discuss the show they've curated for Interface and talk more generally about support for the arts in Norway, how artist run spaces operate there, and residency opportunities they recommend.