MATIAS FALDBAKKEN: "All That Fall"
STANDARD (OSLO)
PRESS RELEASE
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MATIAS FALDBAKKEN
"ALL THAT FALL"
06.10.-06.11.2005 / PREVIEW: THURSDAY 06.10.2005 / 19.00-21.00
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STANDARD (OSLO) is proud to present Matias Faldbakken's solo exhibition "All That Fall". The exhibition shares its starting point with Faldbakken's work for this year's Venice Biennal; the relationship between entertainment, violence and negation. In this discussion "All That Fall" takes a particular interest in 'the absurd'; the loss of meaning and coherence, and the ability of the comical to constantly reconfirm our acceptance of the absurd as a condition of life.
'The absurd' might be understood as the gap between one's serious investments into life and the possibility of all that one takes seriously is subject to doubt. The historical avantgarde's reaction to this loss of coherence was to double this absurdity as some kind of revenge. This was done through despise, spite and negation - exemplified through Dadaism, Situationism and the Punk movement. This negation also involved a complete denial of what is right, healthy and sound. At the centre of Matias Faldbakken's exhibition is a stack of 20 guitar amplifiers. "Away From Sound" fuses the entertainment industry's maximized use of effect - here as a possible wall of sound - with the mute and serial aesthetics of Minimalist art. The title plays on the etymological origin of the term 'absurd' ('absurdus' of 'surdus' meaning 'sound') that can be translated as 'unharmonic' or 'away from (the right) sound'. The inner contradiction of the work is brought even further by the fact that the amplifiers are merely dummies without the ability to produce sound.
"Away From Sound" can be read as a mediation between the entertainment industry's notion of transgression through the spectacular as opposed to the historical avantgarde's notion of transgression through negation. In Faldbakken's discussion violence becomes the common denominatior and the tool for their shared fantasy of a (temporarily) suspension of normality and its laws. The state of emergency as a fetish is subject to discussion in two other works in the exhibition. "Untitled (Ununderstanding)" and "Chain of Events" weave together images of an utmost real violence and a cinematic violence emptied by clichés. Linking to the motif of revenge, "Chain of Events" shows a gold chain as the only remaining item in a black plastic bag. "Untitled (Ununderstanding)" takes form of a baseball bat, wrapped in a black plastic bag, hanging from the ceiling in a chain. The work offers a parodic layering and enlargement of various archetypal film scenes, such as "hanging-in-a-chain-down-at-an-empty-harbour-depot". At the same time this confusion also contributes to an emblematic image of the horror of being placed outside of law and order - outside of compassion and humanity.
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Matias Faldbakken (born 1973) lives and works in Oslo. His works have recently been included in various international biennials such as the Sydney Biennial (2004), Momentum - the Nordic Art Biennial (2004), and in "Sharing Space Dividing Time" in the Nordic Pavillion at this year's Venice Biennial. Faldbakken is also included in the exhibition "Parallell Life" currently showing in Frankfurter Kunstverein.
