FORUM LECTURE
TORIL JOHANNESSEN & SIDSEL MEINECHE HANSEN
The two artists Toril Johannessen and Sidsel Meineche Hansen will expand on issues relationg to an object's status in the lecture The Generic Stone, which is a part of their exhibition at Hordaland Art Centre with the same title. Here they will talk about the process of manufacturing The Generic Stone.
The Generic Stone is a type of granite, which is one of the most common rocks to be found. The stone on display at Hordaland Art Centre is a synthesis in the sense that it is composed of pure chemicals. The stone is consequently synthetic, while its chemical composition is identical to that of granite, and in that sense also natural.
The artists write: In physics there is no such thing as synergy, or increased power through interactions. In comparison, one can say that the process of creating the stone in principle is, scientifically speaking, without synergy: A certain set of known factors, pure chemicals, are put together in one machine to form a prescribed result: synthetic granite. What is put in is equal to what comes out, producing no new scientific insights. However, unlike physics, the synthetic stone’s transition from one knowledge system to another – from science to design and to art – enables a position where we can talk about knowledge-related synergies, namely that it generates a discourse. In our lecture we will analyze the process and the production of the stone to examine the value and knowledge production in which the project will result.
The lecture will be held in English.
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The artists would like to thank Rune Selbekk, curator of mineralogy at the Natural History Museum, University of Oslo.
The exhibition is curated by Anne Szefer Karlsen.
The project is supported by Nordic Culture Point.
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