Til Far (To Father) (2016) by Anne Tveit Knutsen
Video 3:47 min.
Cast: Per Bjørnø
Photo: Anne Tveit Knutsen og Yiyi Wang
Til Far is part of Am I too loud?, a main headline Knutsen has had on her art production since 2012. The video works in this series ask existential questions: How much space can one allow oneself to take, and how much room do others allow one to take? How does power and status affect our ability to raise our personal voices? How quiet can one be and still be heard?
At BEK Archive, we present the films Til Far and Tvillingsong.
The video work Til Far was part of the exhibition White Substance, which was shown at Soft Gallery, November 2016 to January 2017. It was based on the artist’s own experiences with senile dementia, both in her previous work as a nurse, but also in her encounter with Alzheimer’s in close relationships. With titles such as To Mother and To Father, she invited the audience to reflect on what happens when one of the parents develops dementia.
The disease is one of the great challenges in modern medicine, and it will affect most of us at some point if the development continues unhindered. It is a currently unsolved mystery, but it is believed to be related to white substance in the brain and nervous system. Hence the title of the exhibition.
“Long since I have seen such direct speech in a Norwegian gallery”
– Kjetil Røed, Aftenposten
Please read the critique of the exhibition Hvit Substans here (Norwegian).
“Knutsen tells, albeit not in a narrative sense. She makes visible the insignificant, that which does not immediately catch our eye. She also seeks to make visible experiences of lived life and different perspectives for our being in the world”
– Per Kvist
Read the text Levd liv og formens fortelling by Per Kvist here (Norwegian).
Til Far has been shown at Herdla Museum (2018), Nordisk Salong (2017), Dunkers Kulturhus, Helsingborg (2017/2018), Kunstgarasjen Bergen (2017), video screening at Oslo S (2017), Soft Galleri, Oslo (2017 og 2016). The video is collected by KODE – Bergen Art Museums in 2016.
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