Underjordisk

Studio17 proudly presents Marie Saure’s first solo exhibition Underjordisk.

In the artists own words:

Buried deep in the mind are forgotten stories, ancient and ingrained, that have been told for generations. What happens if they are completely forgotten and never told again? Are there
important stories and lessons to be lost? Do we forget our roots, our origins? Beliefs and superstitions, legends, myths and stories have existed since the dawn of time, they have lived their own lives; they have entertained and evolved every time they have moved from person to person. Some legends and stories have lived full lives on their own, and they have met their death because their keepers stopped telling them or because they themselves died. Who remembers stories that no one tells anymore or that have never been told?

Did my mother’s father ever get tempted by the huldr? Did he get the help of gnomes and goblins to care for the animals on the barn? Did my father’s father ever see a sea worm or the
draug when the storm raged around him out at sea? Was he ever warned by a sea spirit when he was going out to sea? Has my father ever heard and been seduced by a mermaids song?
Did the Nix try to lure my mother and her sisters to them when they were children playing by the water? Did forest spirits look after them as they moved on unknown paths in the forest?

I myself know a strange call; a draw; every time I approach water, like a song that cannot be heard; but that just as fully entices me. It’s the wilderness calling me home. When the waves roar and the storm rages, I feel something that alerts and warns, and something that is looking for unwilling victims.When I walk in the woods at dusk I do not feel alone, but whether those who are there with me look after me or are looking for me I am not always sure. This is where I go, in search of the unknown, in search of answers.

Studio17 is continuing the successful collaboration between the Rogaland School of Art (Kunstskolen i Rogaland – KiR), where one of the students graduating from KiR is invited to have a solo exhibition at Studio17 during the upcoming autumn. In 2018 KiR alumni Veslemøy Flotve had her first solo exhibition at Studio17 in the framework of this collaborative project, and in 2017 we had the pleasure of working with Jone Tou. The selection was then, as it is now, made based on the artistic quality of the work presented at the graduation exhibition of KiR.

This year Helga Nyman, daily leader of Rogaland Art Center, selected Saure from the graduating exhibition Humletunnelen.

Marie Saure is currently studying at the Academy of Arts in Tromsø.

Rogaland School of Art is a vocational school that provides education in visual arts. For more info, please visit: www.kir.no