it is harder to fish in brooklyn

Prosjektrom Normanns, Tou Scene, Ølhallen, Stavanger, Norway, 2012
Montrose Farm Residency, Maryland, 2012

Visitors were given materials to build a sculpture with the following instruction: “We live in Brooklyn on 257 17th street. Our neighbor’s house burned down a year ago. The firemen had no access to the house because the owners did not respect the building code. I want, with your help, capture this historic moment of rebuilding the house in the same manner it was done 15 years ago. Their art of building scaffolding is an amazing accomplishment and can be seen as a public art project, raising ethical and political questions.”

The beginning is the most important part of the work. – Plato

Prosjektrom Normanns has invited six artists to make a manual for building an art piece. The manuals are presented in the art space and the audience is invited to build the works. The process of building will occur and develop throughout the exhibition period of one month.

The following will be available in the space:
– 500 metres of raw wooden planks (23×98 mm)
– Hammer, saw, measuring standard and pencil
– Nails

The project is part of an annual cultural event at Tou Scene in Stavanger. The venue is an old brewery which is in the making of becoming a contemporary cultural center. The spaces used for “Beginning” is an old, monumental concrete beer hall, about 90 m2 (970 sq ft).

The project seeks to create and initiate something that is process based and open for interaction, and to challenge and alter expectations of the exhibition as a format and its content. “Beginning” aims to experiment and elaborate on the relation between artists, curators and audience.

Curated by Margrethe Aanestad and Jørund Aase Falkenberg for Prosjektrom Normanns.