North Norwegian Art Centre is pleased to present a new edition of Toril Johannessen’s exhibition «Deterrence and Reassurance», first shown at Bergen Kunsthall in connection with Bergen International Festival in spring 2024.

«A map, which is a minute representation of vast territories, is a truncated picture of reality; we could almost say that it is a lie by omission.»
Philippe Rekacewicz, Radical Cartography 

How objective and precise is a map, a graph or a diagram? In her artistic practice, Toril Johannessen uses information and knowledge as primary material and combines methodical precision with a personal gaze. Almost deviously, she draws attention to how scientific and fact-based data are mixed with subjective and value-based phenomena. Her works are thorough and exploratory and reveal information that is otherwise occluded – examples being infrastructures, techniques and technologies that influence the way we understand the world. In recent years Johannessen has investigated the military presence in Northern Norway.

«Deterrence and Reassurance» explores the fragile boundaries between military presence and civil society. The works focus particularly on Northern Norway and the profound effects which geopolitics can have on our life and surroundings.

The title refers to the strategy that has long been a pillar of Norway’s security policy, especially as regards our relationship to Russia, formerly the Soviet Union. This strategy is calibrated to achieve a delicate balance. Through deterrence, Norway prepares to defend its sovereignty, territorial integrity and political freedom of action, not least through NATO membership. Through reassurance, Norway tries simultaneously to signal to the neighbouring country that it (Norway) is not a threat, for instance through self-imposed restrictions as outlined in its policies regarding national military bases and nuclear weapons.

Deterrence and Reassurance is also the title of the exhibition’s largest work, which consists of long rag rugs woven with strips of used military textiles such as uniforms, wool underwear, tents and sleeping bags. The floor of the exhibition space is almost completely covered by the woven textiles, and we can walk on them after first removing our shoes. The technique for weaving rag rugs is widespread in Scandinavia and often used to recycle old and worn-out textiles. In Johannessen’s installation, the contrast between the original denotations of the textiles, for instance as military surplus materials, and the homy connotations of rag rugs, are reminders of how politics and military activity are woven into the environment and everyday life. In the installation, the alternation between the safe and the unsafe are palpable, tactile and close at hand.

A comparable approach is also relevant for the printed work Colloquial place names linked to military activity (Northern Norway),which is part of the Presence series, originally commissioned by Evenes Air Base and KORO (Norway’s national agency responsible for curating art in public space). The work shows part of a regional map emblazoned with nicknames of places—from geological formations to buildings—all referring to military presence. The names relate to NATO, the Cold War, the Second World War and armed conflicts elsewhere in the world. They testify to an interweaving of civil society, the military and policies reaching back in time but continuing to influence the way we understand and navigate through today’s environment.

The ‘High North’ as a concept is vague and fluid, a political construction continuously adapted to changing geopolitical concerns and interests. Using social-scientific publications and official Norwegian documents as starting points, Johannessen has tried to trace how the concept’s definition has developed over a 50-year period. The results were then painted on a map in the work Locating the High North, which is also part of the Presence series.

Uncertainty about the truthfulness of maps continues in the stencil print series Reliability Diagrams from Military Maps. It is based on tiny diagrams (reliability diagrams) in the margins of maps known as Joint Operations Graphics (JOGs), used during joint military operations organised by NATO and allies. The diagrams show the accuracy of cartographic data simultaneously as they reveal the maps’ shortcomings and inherent subjectivity. What we often take for granted as an almost documentary representation of terrain proves to be subject to changes and omissions. In Johannessen’s series, the reliability diagrams become alienating abstractions inasmuch as they are transformed into colourful geometric surfaces, as if to occlude the maps’ original function as tools for potential violence.

The desire to reveal the power-wielding aspect of mapmaking has been an important stimulus for creating the printed works in the exhibition. A map functions as both an image and an object of use. It is a tool that represents a reality at the same time as actively creating a reality. In the two word-maps I! and We!, also featured in the exhibition, part of the Cap of the North is pictured in combination with its linguistic diversity. Here the artist has stamped the ways in which the words ‘I’ and ‘we’ can be pronounced in the dialects and languages of the region. These works allude to language communities that transcend national borders. With capital letters and exclamation marks, the images celebrate diversity and the rich linguistic web that connects the peoples of the North.

Toril Johannessen grew up in Harstad, studied at Bergen National Academy of the Arts and now lives and works in Bergen. She exhibits widely both at home and abroad and has achieved international recognition. She has been represented in exhibitions such as dOCUMENTA (13) in Kassel (2012), the Festival Exhibition, Bergen Kunsthall (2024), Munch Museum on the Move (2018), at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Oslo (2016), and has also been commissioned to create works of art for Bergen City Hall (2022) and Evenes Air Base (2023).

Curators: Axel Wieder and Silja Leifsdottir (Bergen Kunsthall).
Co-curator at North Norwegian Art Centre: Adriana Alves.

The exhibtition is supported by Bergen Kunsthall, Arts Council Norway, Relief Fund for Visual artists (BKH), and Regionale prosjektmidler (KiN).