Anne-Karin Furunes
Shadows
From March 8th to July 14th, 2014
Palazzo Fortuny, Venice
In her paintings Anne-Karin Furunes uses archival photos of anonymous faces to investigate the personality and identity of the person, seeking in the faded photographs traces of forgotten lives and personalities, escaped from the register of the story. At the first fleeting glance what we see is a canvas covered with hundreds of perfect holes of different sizes. Only when taking distance from the surface of the canvas does a face appear, first only an allusion of the portrayed image, then gradually the more you move away from the canvas, the more the features and facial expressions are defined more clearly. At the end, the viewer recomposes the image for the brief duration of the meeting he has with it, the moment when that image becomes his face, his memory, his version of the reality.
At Palazzo Fortuny Anne-Karin Furunes had the opportunity to see the photo archives stored in the palace, getting closer to the world of Mariano Fortuny through the photographic documentation of his work, his life in the laboratory and the trips that took him to distant lands where he looked for new ideas for his research. Anne-Karin Furunes was fascinated by the interest of Mariano for light in its many effects, both as a means of dissemination and reflection, and in this she found affinity with his work. Every art work by the Norwegian artist lives through the light that touches it; a beam of light can illuminate but also darken the image that then is slowly set before our eyes as light moves through the thousands of holes that cover every canvas.At the center of the exhibition Shadows Anne-Karin Furunes puts the figure of Mariano Fortuny, his interests, his pictures and his collections. All that the Spanish artist has collected in his palace – apparently heterogeneous materials – talks about his feelings and his predilections that are reflected in his work and in his inventions. The subjects used for the paintings in this exhibition were selected from the photographic portraits that Mariano has done of the people who populated the everyday life in Palazzo Pesaro degli Orfei, offering a contemporary light to the silent shadows evoked from the last century. Forgotten faces, freed from the oblivion of the past, are welcoming us in the space of the museum.
Anne-Karin Furunes (1961, lives and works in Trondheim, Norway), studied art in Oslo and Trondheim, as well as architecture in London and Copenhagen. After graduating in art and architecture, she decided to devote herself fully to art.She exhibits regularly in Europe, USA , Australia and Canada, participating with her works in the main international fairs. In 2010, the Trondheim Kunstmuseum dedicated a solo exhibition in which the artist presented her work of the last ten years. Her works are exhibited in major collections including The National Museum of Contemporary Art in Oslo , The Barbican Center in London, The National Museum of China in Beijing, The Museum of Art in Trondheim, The Tromso Museum of Contemporary Art in Norway, The Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma in Helsinki, Finland, and The Museum of Art and Design in New York.
Catalogue published by Punto Marte Editore, Treviso
Curated by Anne-Karin Furunes e Elena Povellato
Layout Daniela Ferretti
With the support of OCA Office for Contemporary Art Norway
and Ambasciata di Norvegia
_