Fun House

In 1997, Sven Påhlsson represented Norway at the Venice Biennale. In the fall of 1998, he was one of fourteen artists in the project "Performing Buildings", five evenings of film projections on the walls of the "Bankside Power Station," which is set to house the new Tate Gallery in London. Other artists selected for this project included, among others, Andy Warhol, Robert Smithson, and Richard Serra. In January 1999, he held a solo exhibition at RARE Gallery, New York, featuring the world premiere of the video animation Fun House. In the year 2000, he will exhibit at Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York.

There has not previously been a larger showing of Sven Påhlsson’s work in Norway, but his video animations have been shown in numerous group exhibitions. Many will likely remember the exhibition Continuous with Pushwagner and Påhlsson at Kunstnernes Hus in 1996. Påhlsson was born in Lund, Sweden in 1965, resides in Oslo, and was educated at the National Academy of Fine Arts in Oslo from 1985–1990.

The art project Fun House explores contemporary society’s accelerating need for illusion, anticipation, and excitement, visualized through the amusement park and the roller coaster. The exhibition requires expensive technical equipment to be realized. We thank Pioneer, Nortelco Systemteknikk, and Interactive Multimedia for their technical collaboration. The exhibition consists of the three videos: Antebellum America (Venice version), Lay Out, and the Norwegian premiere of the video Fun House. In addition, electronic still images from the videos Fun House and Panoramic will be shown. A Pioneer DVD 717 will be used during the screenings. The exhibition is accompanied by an extensive catalog.

We hope the public will take this opportunity to engage with the country’s most important young artist within what is characterized as "the new artistic expression of the 1990s" — video installation.

Text translated by Oslo Kunstforening in 2025