Boklansering

Book and newspaper launch

A Story for You to Continue is an exhibition that opens up multiple narratives evolving around tragic stories of one specific species: the giraffe. Starting point for these narratives is the story of Marius the giraffe that formerly inhabited the Copenhagen Zoo. Marius’ life was terminated on 9 February 2014 to “provide space for more genetically valuable giraffes. When entering the exhibition space, the visitor at first encounters a ready-made cardboard box of a “Dr. Oetker Giraffe Neck Swiss Roll Cake Baking Mix” elevated and protected in a vitrine. Now termed a valuable object in itself, the cake mix becomes an ironic gesture that sets the scene for various giraffe stories of both tragic and comic significance. A colourful exhibition space that evokes, as Gmelin himself puts it, an African waiting room, physically invites us to trace stories from different perspectives: at children’s height we encounter several dozens postcard-sized, hand-painted photographs that visualize a vaudeville-like performance in memory of Marius the giraffe. This performance Gmelin originally initiated together with his colleagues and students at the Oslo National Academy of Art in 2015. While listening to the soundtrack of that same performance, we are invited to move along in the space to encounter Gmelin’s investigations, which take the form of artistic anthropological research.

The exhibition is supported by KHiO where Gmelin is a professor at The Academy of Fine Art.

Newspaper launch
A Story for You to Continue / Jan Verwoert. Practical Exercise

The newspaper Felix Gmelin. A Story for You to Continue / Jan Verwoert. Practical Exercise stands in direct relation to Gmelin’s current exhibition at Fotogalleriet, yet acts as a freestanding publication with Jan Verwoert’s text “Practical Exercise” in focus. Verwoert is professor of art and theory at The Academy of Fine Art. The text, in a sense an ode to Felix’s work, also creates a relationship between the two as colleagues and friends, as children of the revolution, as well as between Gmelin’s earlier work and the work seen at Fotogalleriet. Verwoert’s text is intertwined with elements from A Story for You to Continue, in both a playful and structured way. There will be a conversation between Felix Gmelin and Fotogalleriet’s artistic director, Stephanie von Spreter, it will focus on the exhibition at Fotogalleriet in relation to the publication launched.

Booklaunch
Conceptual Art Book (Ed. Conceptual Art Centre Bukovje)

The Conceptual Art Book also stands in relation to Gmelin's exhibition and is edited by the Conceptual Art Centre Bukovje, which was initiated in 2010 by the artists Nina Slejko Blom and Conny Blom as a zero budget institution for contemporary art, based in Landskrona, Sweden. Nina Slejko Blom and Conny Blom have been arranging exhibitions with up and coming artists as well as established names like Gillian Wearing, Jeremy Deller and John Baldessari since the centre’s foundation. The exhibitions sprang out from the desire to show art that the artists themselves wanted to see. At the same time, it was important to show that art should also function as an idea, and thus the wish to make a book with textual contributions by admired artists was born. At the same time, it was important to make the artistic work accessible and it was therefore a conscious decision to make the book available for free, with the kind financial support of Joseph Kosuth. The CAB - Conceptual Art Book contributors include Bengt Adlers, John Baldessari, Viktor Bernik, D. Graham Burnett, Jeremy Deller, Dan Fox, Yara Flores, iLiana Fokianaki, Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Roni Horn, Clay Ketter, Kitty Kraus, Miltos Manetas, Trevor Paglen, Vanessa Place, Martha Rosler, Klara Sax, Nedko Solakov, Hito Steyerl, Yanis Varoufakis, Beti Zerovc and Felix Gmelin. Nina Slejko Blom and Conny Blom will talk with Felix Gmelin about his contribution to the book, which in turn relates to one particular element in the exhibition at Fotogalleriet, the vaudeville performance.

There will be an open conversation between the editors of the Conceptual Art Book, Nina Slejko Blom and Conny Blom, together with Felix Gmelin and Fotogalleriet’s artistic director, Stephanie von Spreter.

Following the conversations Fotogalleriet invite the audience to soup and drinks, where it will also be possible to get a free copy of the conceptual art book and buy the newspaper. The event is part of Oslo Open.