Things to come

Things to come

RUS MESIC & MARI KJØLL

The "Things to come" project has developed between Rus Mesic and Mari Kjøll.

In the current exhibition at Mellomrommet the artists show works that are founded in a wide range of materials, techniques, and media. Each work or series is carefully installed in order to connect the different strategies to one another. This juxtaposition of media challenges the idea of a media specific aesthetic that has been reintroduced to the art scene lately. By letting the different interests and art strategies be played out against each other, the artists gain a specific semantic movement that change from one gallery to the other, from one spectator to the other. Sometimes this confrontation between media works as an internal contrast, and sometimes the installations build an abridging relation to the theme.

An important aspect of the works exhibited is the subtle change of state between the visible and the invisible. The works of the artists deal to some extent with this fundamental distinction, establishing a dialectic pair; presence and absence. Objects and figures function as signs emanating from the works. This paradoxical play, the problem of visualizing the invisible, keeps the works in movement, temporally, but also semantically. It produces a feeling of absence and instability, where meaning as such is at stake or in flux.    

Rus Mesic, born in 1956 in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He graduated from the Art Academy in Sarajevo in 1980. He lives and works in Norway, since 1993. He teaches at the Interdisciplinary Art Institute in Bærum (DTK) since the year 2000.

Exhibitions (selected)  LNM galleri, Oslo; Boa galleri, Oslo; Bærum Kunsthall; Norske Billedhuggere, Oslo; Kunsthall Charlottenberg, Copenhagen, Danmark; Tegneforbundet, Oslo; Trafo Kunsthall, Asker; Centro Cultural S.Paulo, Brasil; Paraxo Biennale, Italy; F15, Moss; Caldas de Rainha, Portugal; IKM, Oslo, Ju dokumenta, Sarajevo, BiH; Kristiansand Kunsthall; Centro Cultural de Cascais, Portugal; Skien kunstforening; Art gallery Berlin AM, Germany; Art c, Amien, France    

Mari Østby Kjøll, born 1983 in Molde, Norway. She Lives and works in Oslo. She is educated at the Interdisciplinary Art Institute in Bærum (DTK), ESAD in Portugal and the University of the Arts in Oslo. She teaches at the Interdisciplinary Art Institute in Bærum (DTK).  

Exhibitions (selected)

Norske grafikere, Oslo; Billedhuggerforeningen, Oslo; Bærum Kunsthall, Oslo; Årsutstillingen Kunsthåndverk, Oslo; Galleri Format, Oslo. Sammen med kunstnergruppen Svartjord har hun deltatt på utstillinger ved Akershus Kunstsenter og Norsk billedhuggerforening.