Astrup Fearnley Museet in Oslo presents Between Rivers from October 18, 2024 to January 12, 2025. Between Rivers brings together contemporary artists who explore the place of rivers in our lives at a time when they are being profoundly reshaped by human activity.
Image above: Thao Nguyen Phan, First Rain, Brise Soleil, 2021 – 2022, Film still, Courtesy of Thao Nguyên Phan and Galerie Zink © Thao Nguyen Phan
While they have been an important topic for artists in the twentieth century and are at the heart of significant developments in fields as diverse as ecology and environmentalism, political organization and activism, and the built environment and architecture, they have been discussed with increasing urgency in recent years.
In addition to reports of atmospheric rivers causing the worst flooding in California, there are also reports of the Yangtze, Rhine and Zambezi river levels dropping to their lowest levels since records began. Systems that are critical to the functioning of our world today, such as hydropower generation, food security and global transportation networks, are being profoundly affected. At the same time, the recognition of indigenous definitions of rivers and the expansion of scientific and legal definitions are changing what we mean by the term. In 2017, the Māori won a legal battle to recognize the Whanganui River in New Zealand’s Aotearoa as a living entity and ancestor. This aligns with recent developments in environmental law that argue for nature, including rivers, as a subject.
The artists represented in Between Rivers propose new ways of reading and imagining rivers. Although many of the works are characterized by modes of expression that are distinctive to each artist’s practice – perhaps unsurprising given the challenge of representing a subject that is always in motion and constantly changing form – they are nevertheless linked by the image, experience or process of a river. Some of the works make direct reference to the world’s most significant river systems, tracing and documenting their course to raise questions about territory and identity, the remnants and lingering effects of colonial history and the impact of contemporary agricultural techniques. Other works relate to the theme more indirectly, using the movement of a river as a methodology for creating new works, including new commissions for this exhibition. Several works exploit the poetic and imaginative possibilities of the theme, suggesting permeable, generous and interdependent relationships with nature. Finally, the material of a river and what collects along it – its liquid body, the soil on its banks and the plants that grow in that soil – form the material of some installations and sculptural objects. The exhibition aims to offer multiple and even competing definitions of the theme and to encourage visitors to form their own opinions about the role of rivers today.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a public program that includes talks with artists and leading scientists, a film screening and a performance. In addition to the exhibition itself, these interventions will be documented so that they can be disseminated via the Astrup Fearnley Museet’s numerous digital channels.
With:
Alex Ayed, Hicham Berrada, Anna Boghiguian, Reena Saini Kallat, Zoe Leonard, Cato Løland, Delcy Morelos, Senga Nengudi, Thao Nguyen Phan, Marjetica Potrč, Lala Rukh, James Webb
Curated by Owen Martin
WHEN?
Exhibition dates: Friday, October 18, 2024 – Sunday, January 12, 2025
Opening hours: Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, 12 – 5 pm, Thursday, 12 – 7 pm, Saturday – Sunday, 11 am – 5 pm
WHERE?
Astrup Fearnley Museet
Strandpromenaden 2
0252 Oslo
Norway
