HC Gilje - light castings from Vardø
- Place Vardø
- From
- To
As part of NNKS’s focus on Norway’s northeastern city, HC Gilje plans to realize a series of Vardø portraits in the form of light castings.
The artwork:
HC Gilje plans to realize a series of Vardø
portraits in the form of light casts. The portraits take the form of
three-dimensional light castings, which are created using a LIDAR
scanner. LIDAR is related to both sonar and radar, and emits invisible
light pulses that are reflected back from the surrounding environment.
The result is a thin shell, an imprint of the original place and the
people in it, a frozen moment orbited by a virtual camera. The
three-dimensional cloud of white dots that make up the outline is
enveloped in endless black. The perspective is detached from the body,
the eye or a physical camera so that light casting can be seen from the
inside and the outside, from underneath or from above, close to or at a
distance.
The artist:
HC Gilje (b. 1969) works with installations where
volatile media – such as sound, projections, light and motion – can
change and activate a certain space. Gilje graduated from the Academy of
Fine Arts in Trondheim (1999) and after spending many years in Berlin
he now resides in Oslo. Gilje has shown works around the world, and some
of his most recent solo exhibitions have been at Trøndelag Center for
Contemporary Art (2020), Stereolux (2019), ANX (2018), Kunsthall
Grenland (2018), Rake Visningsrom (2016) and Kristiansand Kunsthall
(2016). He has participated in several festivals, such as Sonic Acts in
Amsterdam (2010, 2013, 2017 and 2019) and LIAF (2013). Gilje
participated in the project Dark Ecology (2015-17) and in several group
exhibitions.
Vardø (Northern Sami; Várggát, Kven: Vuorea, Finnish: Vuoreija)
Vardø is the easternmost town of Norway. It has a population of
approximately 2000 people and is the only town in Finnmark where you can
experience a continuous pre-war architecture originating from before
the Second World War. It is the region´s oldest fishing village and was
known as the Pomeranian capital, as it was a centre for trade with
Russia in the 19th century. In more recent times Vardø is home for the
Steilneset memorial, the Nordic championship of snowball throwing (part
of the Yukigassen). In Vardø, Kystopprøret (the coastal uprising) has
also originated – a movement that strongly criticizes how the the common
marine resources have been privatized and brought out of the region.
Background:
Over the past two years, the North Norwegian Art Center has commissioned
and presented a series of art projects in Mo i Rana. Alongside the new
art projects NNKS has actualized art´s presence in the town of Mo
through several public presentations and meetings. The launch of the
NNKS activities in Vardø is a successor to this context-specific
long-term project. Between 2020 and 2022, NNKS will continue the
long-term commitment at a selected location in Northern Norway, this
time Vardø in the county of Finnmark.