Sparebankstiftelsen DNB Grant Exhibition 2024
Eline Benjaminsen, Nikhil Vettukattil and Margrethe Kolstad Brekke. Photo: Kristine Jakobsen
Oslo Kunstforening is pleased to welcome you to the opening of Sparebankstiftelsen DNB Grant Exhibition 2024 with Eline Benjaminsen, Margrethe Kolstad Brekke and Nikhil Vettukattil.
This year's grant exhibition will be held at Oslo Kunstforening for the seventeenth time. To date, 20 artists have received grants and 78 artists have participated in the exhibition. Several of today's most renowned artists are former participants in the exhibition, which is met with great interest every year from a wide audience.
Eline Benjaminsen uncovers the often invisible and hidden spaces where financial transactions take place. She combines traditional documentary photography with experimental techniques in a genre she and collaborator Dayna Casey describe as 'cli-fi-fi', climate finance fiction. In the exhibition, Benjaminsen presents the installation The Flora of Finance, which includes two new films that examine how financial practices limit access to land and natural resources. The films show the costs and consequences this has for nature and for the livelihood of those affected.
Margrethe Kolstad Brekke is a textile artist and lives in Rjukan in Telemark. Her work combines aesthetics and activism as part of the artist collective Rjukan Solarpunk Academy. Brekke’s interdisciplinary and process-based practice demands engagement with the climate crisis. In the installation Solar Maximum Diorama, a monumental textile work of 45 square meters, five main motifs related to sustainable conversion processes are presented. The work is the first part in a series that Brekke will further develop throughout 2025 as part of Rjukan Solarpunk Academy.
Nikhil Vettukattil has a background in philosophy and visual art and works in a wide range of expressions, most commonly using remix of existing material as a method from which to form new compositions. In the installation Defund the Police, large amounts of collected video material from the last ten years are presented in chronological order. Footage from demonstrations and political movements is mixed with clips from popular culture, fictional films and images of art. A soundtrack (comprised of news, sampled music, lectures and political speeches) accompanies the images, which are presented on three monitors in a semi-domestic setting. Through the art of remix, Vettukattil connects events that are often seen in isolation rather than as part of an intersectional network of global processes that characterize our time.
“This year’s edition showcases three artists who work with media such as photography, sound, video and textile. In their practices, they explore contemporary issues related to economic perspectives, food production, and utopian strategies – with the climate crisis as a backdrop. We look forward to the exhibition showcasing the work of these three exciting artists.”
This year’s jury consists of Ana María Bresciani, curator at KORO, Pedro Gómez-Egaña, visual artist and professor at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts, Sandra Mujinga, visual artist and musician, Axel Wieder, director of Berin Biennale, and Elisabeth Byre, artistic director of Oslo Kunstforening. The recipient of the grant of NOK 200.000 will be announced during the exhibition period. New as of this year, the recipient will also be offered a studio residency at Edvard Munch’s former studio at Ekely.
Eline Benjaminsen (b. 1992) lives and works in Oslo. Benjaminsen holds a BA in photography from the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague. She has recently exhibited at venues such as Radius CCA, Delft, Netherland (2024), KunstHaus Wien, Austria (2024), Wereldmuseum Amsterdam, Netherland (2023).
Margrethe Brekke (b. 1979) holds an MA in Fine Art from The Art Academy in Bergen (2014), and has exhibited at venues such as Flag-no-flag, Reggio Emilia (2021), Muzeion, Bolzano (2019), Hordaland Kunstsenter, Bergen (2019), Kunstnerforbundet, Oslo (2017), in addition to venues organised by the Arctic Art Institute. Brekke has also developed several interdisciplinary collaborations such as the Luftballett project (2015-2018) and Rjukan Solarpunk Academy (2019-).
Nikhil Vettukattil (b. 1990) holds a BA in Fine Art from Central St. Martins in London and an MA in Contemporary European Philosophy from Kingston University, London. They are part of the Institute for Scene Experiments, and recent exhibitions include Hothouse Flowers, Podium, Oslo (2024), Postproduction, Studiengalerie 1.357 Goethe University, Frankfurt (2023), Contaminators, FELIX GAUDLITZ, Vienna (2023) and Claustrophobia Alpina III, Ford, Geneva (2023).
The annual grant exhibition has been organized by Oslo Kunstforening since 2008 with support from Sparebankstiftelsen DNB. Previous grant recipients are Linda Lamignan (2023), Kim Hankyul (2022), Anne Haugsgjerd (2021), Berivan Erdogan, Hanni Kamaly and Kjetil Skøien (2020), Germain Ngoma (2019), Eirik Sæther (2018), Emilija Škarnulytė (2017), Tor Børresen, (2016), Andrea Bakketun and Christian Tony Norum (2015), Ingrid Lønningdal (2014), Sandra Mujinga (2013), Marie Buskov (2012), Kaia Hugin (2011), Ann Cathrin November Høibo (2010), Ignas Krunglevičius (2009) and Ellisif Hals and Susanne Skeide (2008).