Weekendavisen - Liberty Paterson

working with ideas around choreography and around dance. It seams that more and more artists
are using these methodologies in their practise, and that it in a way gives artists the opportunity
to explore how we connect through our surroundings. What it means to make an action, and how
we are responsible for our actions. So the exhibition considers both physical everyday experience
that we all share as human beings but it’s also a response to the art world and artists and the
themes they are working with.
I think that’s really important because although artists don’t always set out consciously to
represent a certain group of people or theme, I think that what artists do is capture a spirit of
the time. And in these times where there are demonstrations and political action happening
across the world, I believe that there is renewed interest in the body and in how individual action
holds potential for change.
What about the title, Show Time?
Show Time definitely refers to the concept of making an exhibition about the body. In a way Gl
Holtegaard becomes a stage for this exhibition and we show the body. So it’s a reference to the
performativity involved in showing the body on a stage. Basically when people come to see the
exhibition, they are given permission to watch people using their bodies, and that’s something
that happens in the theatre, or in the cinema, where you are given permission to watch and
reflect. In everyday life, maybe you’re avoiding someone’s glance in the street, because you’re
analyzing something in the way they’re walking or how they’re acting or behave, but in this
exhibition we are inviting people to take a closer look, and so shares some of the same qualities
as the theatre.
What about the works in the exhibition? Will there be live performances?
There will be several live performances. They’re maybe not the most important part of the
exhibition - it’s not a live-performance exhibition - but there will be a performance at the
opening, a very special performance, which involves a sculpture made by Jacqueline Doyen.
There will also be performances involving young dancers. They will be working with
choreographer Luis Lara Malvacía and they will be in the gallery spaces sporadically throughout
March performing and improvising performances. In addition to that we have a residency by the
architect-artist duo Sans façon, who will be making a new work in line with the theme of the
exhibit
The body in contemporary art is often related to performance art and it’s roots in the
1960s. Are the works in this exhibition more related to time?
Well, there is a lot of performance within the videos in the exhibition. In connection with the title
and the concept of showing time, time is very important within this whole exhibition. The
exhibition is on a historical framework, so it’s consistently in dialogue with previous times, and
many of the artists within the exhibition use it as a platform for reviewing the past. Moreover
there’s also an element of time in the video works - some of them repeats themselves on loops
so they repeat time. Others are in slow motion, effectively stretching time. So it’s about
changing the notion of time and how we understand time. Our experience of time is not
necessarily by a 24hour clock, it can slow down or speed up, and that’s exactly what it’s about in
this exhibition.
Do you see the emphasis of the role of the body as a new tendency in contemporary
art?
I think it’s very apparent in the visual arts especially since the 1960s. Specifically the
relationship between dance and choreography in the visual arts and their relationship, although
in the 60s it was a very different way of exploring the way we use the body, which was more
about interaction and artworks which required the body to complete the actual work. The actions
of the spectator were required. It’s taken another form now, but it’s hard to summarize what this
form is since we’re right in the middle of it. So I would say that it follows a long tradition, but it’s
taking a new turn.
Do you think this tradition is supported now by a theoretical focus on phenomenology,
gender studies and other methodologies that emphasises the role of the body?
I think we’re realising the value of the performance art that evolved around the 60s. We are
realising the value of how we archive performance art, how we look after it, how we pass that