Find Your Eyes
Find Your Eyes is an an ongoing art-in-nature project on the island Sølyst in southern Norway curated by Monika Wuhrer, Ronja Svaneborg (Volume 5+) and Ingeborg Kvame (Volume 2-4).
Our mission is to explore the history and the future of this very interesting island, which seems like a miniature of the world. Through artistic interventions we are dealing with the way social politics are negotiated on the island – talking to us about the struggles of sharing beauty on a global scale.
Who is allowed where? Worldwide we deal with borders of countries that separate land, but within countries and families we are dealing with the same question. Laws and regulations separate the poor from the rich and the outsiders from the insiders. What makes Sølyst attractive is it´s stunning nature. In Tove Kommedal´s research for the Project Ballast in Find Your Eyes – Volume 4 she concluded that the reason for the rich diversity in plants on the island is the trades done by boat. The ships came with ballast, mostly soil for weight, and dumped it on the islands to make room for norwegian wood.
Centuries ago a handful of people bought land and settled on Sølyst. Those families have taken care and kept the Island in beautiful condition since then. Recently land got sold and the biggest developer of Norway is planning to build an apartment complex, which will change the aesthetics and the population on the Island. Global politics are mirrored on this small island where long time residents are fighting the outsiders.
Artists have a responsibility to ask questions. For us it is important to intensify the experience on the island while not overpowering the nature, but rather enhancing and collaborating with it. We believe art is at it’s best when leaving it’s questions unanswered and thereby suggesting that all of us have to be proactive.
Find Your Eyes – Volume 5-8 will see a rotating group of artists working in dissimilar medias with a common denominator; the ability to work in a challenging environment, not only using space as a canvas but rather as a an input for conceptual work.
The Island will always exhibit a mix of international and local artist – people from different social backgrounds and with different political situation in their home countries. For every volume we select 2-3 artists who are pared carefully in order to create tension. The conversation is not only about the work´s site specific nature but also roots in political, social and environmental topics.
Twice a year new work is developed and installed on the Island for a restricted amount of time; some discrete and some more conspicuous. While some work is visible from boats or cars, other work can be discovered by curious hikers who listen and look carefully for interventions.
For us it is important that we are working with the local community and exchange our experience of what we call home. As curators we bring in our own experiences from both having lived in remote areas and crowded cities. Ronja (originally from Denmark) lives in Bregenzerwald in a very remote area and Monika (originally from Austria) lives in New York City. Monika, founder of Open Source Gallery in Brooklyn N.Y. was invited to curate Find Your Eyes because of her interest in working with unconventional spaces and integrating local community members. The combination of our living situations underpin our curiosity in changing communities and local identities. As outsiders we have the possibility to spark dynamic discussion.
Our intention is not to impose answers, but rather feed material for discussion.