Entrée is completing our one-year cinema program by screening two films
by Oslo-based artist Mai Hofstad Gunnes. In her artistic practice involving 16mm film,
video installations, collage and photography, Mai Hofstad Gunnes reflect on
fundamental mechanisms in our associative processes and how we unconsciously
put together ideas and images based on our experiences, surroundings and
historical context. Her works show an interest in how contemporary channels of
communication distort existing power structures and possibly pervert historical
ideal types. Consequently, by looking at these developments from a historical,
psychoanalytical and feminist perspective, she seeks to investigate the
underlying potential in our time.
Mai Hofstad Gunnes (b.1977, Lørenskog, Norway) studied at
Universität der Kunste, Berlin, CCA Kitakyushu, Japan, and Trondheim Academy of
Fine Art, Norway, where she received her MFA in 2004. Solo exhibitions include B. The Second Letter at Baltic 39,
Gateshead/Newcastle (UK); Proverbs for Ouroborosat Trondheim Art Museum (NO); Baby Snakes
Hatching. Ruins.Ruins at UKS, Young Artists’ Society, Oslo (NO); Bike and Bolex at WIELS Contemporary Art
Centre, Brussels (BEL), and A shape of
love you can never imagine at Oslo Kunstforening (NO). Her
work has been included in exhibitions at Kunsthall Oslo (NO), Oppland Art
Centre (NO), Stavanger Kunsthall (NO), CAC, Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius
(LTU), Momentum 7, Nordic Biennial for Contemporary Art, Moss (NO), Temporary
Gallery, Cologne (DE) and The National Musem Art Architecture and Design, Oslo
(NO). She has participated in the
residencies HIGH-NORTH- Tromsø Kunstforening/ Tromsø Academy of Contemporary Art (NO); CCA
Glasgow- BALTIC Centre for
Contemporary Art (UK); W17- Kunstnernes Hus (NO); WIELS Contemporary Art Centre
Brussels (BEL); La Cite International, Paris (FR) and IASPIS- International
Artist Studio Program in Stockholm (SE). She
is currently working on her upcoming project Celler og Vev including
a new film where genetics and the practice of weaving are connected.
About the
films
Mai Hofstad Gunnes, B. The Second
Letter, film still.
Mai
Hofstad Gunnes B. The
Second Letter, 2015 22' 43''
16mm film transferred
to HD video, stereo audio
A woman is confronted with an unknown decision that leads to
a change in the way she associates. Her interest in the letter B as a sign for
a specific person changes into an obsession in building an image archive of
women that all have in common their last name starts with the letter B. The
film embodies the main character's association process and stages the creation
of an image archive, which could also exist as a parallel to an artistic
practice. The film explores the buried impulses that lie
behind our desire to collect and organize our experience of the world, while at
the same time offering a feminist image of cultural history.
Director/Producer: Mai Hofstad Gunnes Cast: Rahel Savoldelli, Tormod Carlsen, Heidi Dalene, Rannei Grenne, Sigrid
Marie Kittelsaa Vesaas, Eivind Seljeseth Director of Photography: Marte Vold First Camera Assistant: Egil Håskjold Larsen First Assistant Director: Steinar Haga Kristensen Sound: Fanny Wadman Editor: Cristóvão dos Reis and Mai Hofstad Gunnes Sound design: Jochen Jezussek Grading: Christian Berg-Nielsen
Mai Hofstad Gunnes Wave, Whip, Fan,
film still.
Mai
Hofstad Gunnes Wave, Whip, Fan, 2017
11'
22''
HD video, stereo
audio
The film Wave, Whip, Fan imagines the complex impact that the relocation of
a pond might have on a subject´s identity. A small pond called Gulltjønn
located in Gudbrandsdalen, Norway, was moved a couple of hundred meters due to
the construction of a new highway. The subject’s world’s genetic strain is literally and
geographically refigured, as the pond with it’s interacting organisms repositions.
And this is in turn inflicting with the subject’s capacity to bring back
memories or remember images. The
title of the film refers to tail movements performed by the male smooth newt,
Triturus Vulgaris, during courtship.
Director/Producer: Mai Hofstad Gunnes Voice: Veslemøy Mørkrid Director of Photography: Cecilie Semec First Camera Assistant: Mattias Pollak Sound on Location: Therese Næss Diesen Editor: Vårin Andersen Supervising Sound Editor: Rune Baggerud Colorist: Christian Berg-Nielsen, Sement &
Betong
Subtitles: Vårin Andersen English Translation: Johnny Herbert
Mai Hofstad Gunnes Wave, Whip, Fan,
film still.
Mai Hofstad Gunnes, B. The Second
Letter, film still.
