Themed on the relation between word and image, literature and visual art, Seeable / Sayable is a collaboration between Kunstnernes Hus and Litteraturhuset (The House of Literature) and involves both artists and authors, existing works and new commissions. The exhibition iscurated by Helga-Marie Nordby and Ida Kierulf from Kunstnernes Hus.

Image and word, the seeable and the sayable, are factually and metaphorically interwoven in our ideas and stories about the world. They form complex entities and ways of grasping the world. Yet they operate differently and cannot be understood as homogenous entities. Art manages to demonstrate and reflect on this interaction and the friction arising from it. A picture can be inherently narrative – mute images may begin to speak. At the same time, a text can conjure a wealth of images in the mind’s eye – words may appear as visible, bodily presences. How does language create images and how do images manifest language? What emerges in the field of tension between literary and visual artistic expressions? These are some of the questions the project seeks to explore.

Participating artists: John Baldessari, Marcel Broodthaers, Matias Faldbakken, Ester Fleckner, Jan Freuchen, John Giorno, Susan Hiller, Olav Christopher Jenssen, William Kentridge, Solveig Lønseth, Mercedes Mühleisen and Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt.

Performance program at Grotten: Nils Bech, Tori Wrånes and Ragnhild Aamås.

Kunstnernes Hus website

Collection Artist(s)