DOMESTICATIONS
In Domestications Bennin presents works from a landscape formerly used by the Norwegian national army and NATO as a military shooting range (Hjerkinn skytefelt), that now is being reconstructed. In the 165 square kilometre large area, all traces of weapon testing and war simulating are to be erased, and nature reconstructed. Significantly, this landscape is located on the top of Norway’s most well-known mountain range – Dovrefjell – an area inextricably connected to the nation’s identity through myths, folkloristic tales and ominously, an oath on Norway’s constitution (“Enig og tro til Dovre faller” / “United and faithful til Dovre falls”).
The works in Domestications examines a landscape in a state of reconstruction and are all made within this landscape, from the shootingrange and the closed mine from underneath Hjerkinn. The exhibitions presents images, still and moving, which function both as an affirmation of an unspecified and wholly indeterminate present, as well as fragments of an archive for future reading: two differing and mutually dependent modes of accounting for constructing something like an identity.
As part of Bennin’s ongoing project A Nation Restored, that begun more than three years ago, Domestications not only documents the process of erasing all physical traces of former military activity and the subsequent construction of a new topography. Domestications also reflects on how the largest nature-restoration-project in the history of Norway reinforces a romanticized idea of (unspoiled) nature and at the same time reveals its artificiality and mechanisms for constructing images of truth and reality. It is here that Bennin uses the photographic medium to capture a moment in metamorphosis, simultaneously archiving the has-been, the now and the yet-to-be.
Andreas Bennin (born 1968 in Oslo, lives in Oslo and Värmland, Sweden) recently graduated with a BA and MA from The National Academy of Fine Arts, Oslo (2007-2012). The exhibition at Fotogalleriet is the first large institutional show in Bennin’s artistic career. His work was recently part of Kunst i avis, Kunst på Veitvet (2013) and The National Academy of Fine Arts, Oslo MA Graduation Exhibition, where Bennin presented his project at the Akershus Fortress, Oslo (2012). He also presented his work in a solo show at One Night Only, Oslo (2011) and participated in These days painted by umbrellas and the graduation exhibitions Bachelors at Large at Tullinløkka/The National Museum – Museum of Contemporary Art, Oslo (2009/2010) .
The exhibition is supported by The Norwegian Arts Council, The Norwegian Photographic Fund and The Norwegian Visual Artists Associations’ Project Fund.
