Concessions. Solo exhibition at Galleri BOA, Oslo, 2008.
Galleri BOA (Billedkunstnerne i Oslo og Akershus) is proud to announce the opening of ‘concessions’. Morten Andenæs’ solo exhibition consists of nine photographic works taken from the project ‘Re: the middle class’.
Besides being a beuracratic handout, the term concession can be understood as admitting to, or renouncing something, without losing face. As a counterpoint to this clever mechanism whereby a seemingly polite gesture often has power as its ultimate goal, a concession can also be viewed as the will to follow. By consciously choosing to resign oneself to the law, one’s fate or whatever, an illusion of free will is maintained.
By echoing the stance of the liberal middle class, the imagery upholds a seemingly fair, tolerant and netural distance towards the world. Because the images neither veil nor reveal, are neither seductive or dismissive, they exist at a kind of zero-level. What is it we’re confronted here where cynicism and naiveté´ seem to melt into each other? Resignation or devotion; indifference or neutrality?
The precise, no-nonsense approach to situations and objects is, in Andenæs’ case, not just a matter of trying to transcribe the world as it appears. The insistent focus on the visible begs the question whether there str such things as realistic, sustainable illusions in a time where it seems our only alternatives are denial or disillusion.
