Records of presence 1
​The world changes in accelerating speed, and the driving forces are human activities.
If our own resonance is the very core of the problem, if our presence suffocate the world; what should we do? What can we do, when we fear our own resonance? What do we think, if human innovation itself is part of the problem?
Where does artistic practice stand under these conditions? Is art able to renegotiate this situation? Is it even right to do, make, say, think anything, even art?
When doing anything without inflicting violence on the world seem impossible, I alternate between paralysis and resignation. I don't know where to look, what to write, how to discuss the present.​ ​
I am overwhelmed by paralysis.
I am seduced by dissociation.
I am resigning.
I am desperate.​
Nevertheless, we are present, we are alive, we are part of this existence, we are in it together, and we must continue to negotiate.
In a series of workshops discussing presence, I am investigating recordings of our collective existence. Without any hopes of finding solutions, merely enduring the unbearable truth that all we are, and all we have, is here and now.
Can recordings of resonance of our presence, function as a transformative force in a desperate existence? In what ways can artistic processing of presence resonate?
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According to the ontological turn in social science, one cannot take for granted what is natural and what is social; it is in constant negotiation between man and object that relationships between things and concepts develop. The factors are always intermingled, one cannot examine one without the other, but one can depict the relationship between them. 1
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I am curious what emerges through recordings of the alternating state in between attempt and paralyse, and what we can find in collective recordings of us relating to our immediate existence. The research is questioning if it is possible to record artistic testimonies of a collective here and now. Further, if we can withdraw from the temptation of suggesting solutions for tomorrow and/or telling romantic stories of past time? And finally, how will the artifact we produce resonate just now, and later then?
Records of presence 1 during Artistic Research Week at the Oslo Academy of the Arts is the initial intervention in a larger research project that examines presence from an interdisciplinary scenographic perspective.
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Gunhild Mathea (1983) is a transdisciplinary artist based in Norway. Her artistic output over the last two decades comprises both solo works and collaborations in various constellations of artists. Her artworks – which straddle dramatic art, visual art, music and sound art – have been exhibited in galleries, site-specific locations, public spaces and theatre, dance and music venues in Norway, Europe, Asia and the USA. Gunhild Mathea holds a PHD in artistic research from the Norwegian Theatre Academy, is currently associate professor in scenography and research leader for the Theatre department at the Oslo National Academy of Arts, and member of the editorial committee of VIS – Nordic Journal for Artistic Research and Metode (Rom for Kunst og
Arkitektur).​​​
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