Forsvinninger/Disappearances

Oslo Kunstforening/Oslo Fine Art Society are proud to present the Colombian- Norwegian artists Katharina Barbosa Blad, Yamile Calderon and Olga Robayo together with novelist Hans Petter Blad in an exhibition titled Disappearances.

Colombia’s recent sociopolitical history is marked by the expansion of drug cartels with an escalation of violence as a result, leading to political assassinations and kidnappings as one of its most extreme and visible results. The growing number of internal refugees is another issue that has become more prominent over the years as well as the almost lost identity of indigenous Latin American’s.

Over the past year Katharina Barbosa Blad has worked with a group of internal women refugees on reconstructing the last episode of one of Colombia’s most popular soap opera’s, a Telenovela titled En Nombre del Amor. The telenovelas are so popular that most people, as will be shown, do whatever they have to not to miss out on an episode. Yamile Calderon has been documenting mafia residences and properties of members who have been murdered or are sitting behind bars. The properties are under government custody. Calderon’s main interest has been the aesthetics in these private homes and what it reveals about the self-image the mafia wants to communicate externally but also surround themselves with in their private life. The iconography found in the houses is often linked to religion, the classical ideals, film and popular culture. Olga Rubayo has been studying the “missing person-posters” found in all large cities throughout Latin America. Many disappearances take place on university campuses, creating an almost absurd reality on construction of knowledge, but also the knowledge that gets lost, literally. Hans-Petter Blad contribution is an essay written as a novel that ties together the works presented in the exhibition. The novel will be published in Norwegian as part of Flamme Publishing’s novel series.

Katharina Barbosa Blad har under ett års tid arbetat med en grupp kvinnliga internflyktingar med att rekonstruera det sista avsnittet i ett av landets mest populära så kallade Telenovela, En Nombre del Amor. Yamile Calderon har med sin kamera dokumenterat ett antal hem och egendomar tillhörande maffiafamiljer, som antingen mördats eller som sitter fängslade. Hemmen är idag övergivna, och ligger under statligt ansvar. Genom att studera estetiken i dessa hem avslöjas den självbild maffian ville/vill förmedla utåt men också omge sig med privat. Ikonografin som återfinns i de övergivna hemmen är ofta knuten till religion men också de klassiska idealen, film och populärkultur. Olga Robayo tar utgångspunkt i de ”saknad”-affischer som återfinns i storstäderna i Latinamerika. Många av dessa försvinnanden sker på universitetsområdena, vilket skapar en nästintill absurd verklighet för uppbyggandet av kunskap men också kunskap som gått förlorad bokstavligt talat. Författaren Hans Petter Blad kommer att skriva novelliknande text som väver samman de olika arbetena som ingår i utställningen. Texten kommer att publiceras som del i Flamme Forlags serie.