MOMENTUM 7

Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast (curated by Power Ekroth, Sweden/Norway) DOWNLOAD PART OF CATALOG AS PDF HERE

The general text for the exhibition written by Power Ekroth, NOTES FROM THE SUPERSTRUCTURE is found HERE. 

All artist texts for the exhibition found HERE.

Sergei Bugaev Afrika (Russia)

Loulou Cherinet (Sweden)

Jan Christensen (Norway)

Cevdet Erek (Turkey)

Bjørn-Kowalski Hansen (Norway)

Goran Hassanpour (Sweden)

Laura Horelli (Finland)

Stine-Marie Jacobsen (Denmark)

Hassan Khan (Egypt)

Gabriel Lester (The Nederlands)

Lisi Raskin (USA)

Johan Zetterquist (Sweden)

Clemens von Wedemeyer (Germany)

Interview with Erlend Hammer and Power Ekroth by Sissel Lillebostad for B-Post about the process leading up to the biennial here.

Images by Vegard Kleven, Markus Stabel and the artists.

Erlend Hammer and Power Ekroth curate two separate parts for Momentum 7, each with an own exhibition title and group of artists. Both work closely with artists they invite to the exhibition, and are concerned with the collaboration process between artist and curator. By sharing the biennale between them, they constantly put their separate signature on their part of the exhibition, and will to a greater extent be individually responsible for the end result, which in turn affects the ambition to create the best possible biennial. The Biennials main venue is Momentum kunsthall, a former brewery in the city centre of Moss. In addition Momentum 7 engages Heilmannparken, a pale garden from 1809, and an outdoor area at the entrance to Møllebyen and Momentum kunsthall.

Power Ekroth about Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast

Advocating a romantic thought about contemporary art being worth something beyond an economical value, or a simple marker of social stand, the exhibition Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast challenge the visitors stop for a second and think about what art may be and mean to a society. The works in the exhibition are thus not to be considered as bricks that fit into a tight conceptual wall. Most of the works are produced for Momentum by artists that were invited because of an ability to embrace serious issues with a playful mind and a dash of humor. Some ideas and works proposed in the exhibition might indeed be impossible, others problematic, others obscure or perhaps even idiotic. An exhibition or an art work may represent a looking-glass into another world; deformed or deranged, a place where mystery and allure can be found, where one can lose oneself for a moment and exit with some new food for thought. The call to try to think of Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast every day is most likely one of the most important activities one can engage in, something that may fuse resistance, innovation and perhaps even: change.

The curatorial choice

The curator’s method of curatorial collaboration is a continuation of how Ekroth and Hammer previously worked with texts, often under the common namePowerHammer. The first of these texts addressed the issue of biennials and were published in B-Post Journal in 2008.

Both Ekroth and Hammer work primarily in a way that relies on close collaboration with the artists, and both have a passion for curating exhibitions based on the selected artists rather than to create definite constraints for the artists to adapt. The exhibitions emerge in dialogue between curators and their respective groups of artists.

Although both Ekroth and Hammer work with their artists in a similar, process-oriented way, there are also significant differences between the two curators. This is true both in terms of how they see their role as curators, as well as what might be called a generally different ideological approach to the arts.

Dare 2 Love Yourself (curated by Erlend Hammer, Norge)

Matthew Antezzo (USA)

Per Christian Brown (Norway)

Paolo Chiasera (Italy)

Ane Graff (Norway)

Mai Hofstad Gunnes (Norway)

Knut Henrik Henriksen (Norway)

Ane Mette Hol (Norway)

Victor Lind (Norway)

Jared Madere (USA)

Bjarne Melgaard (Norway)

Sex Tags (Norway)

Eve K. Tremblay (Canada)

Lars Monrad Vaage (Norway)

Charlotte Wankel (Norway)

Sverre Wyller (Norway)