GALLERI NICOLAI WALLNER

 

 

 

 

njalsgade 21 • building 15 • 2300 copenhagen s • denmark • phone:
+4532570970 • fax: +4532570971 • contact: nw@nicolaiwallner.com

 

 

 

press release - Lise Harlev

Press release - Lise Harlev
Har du nogensinde l¿jet om hvor du kom fra?
(Have you ever lied about where you're coming from?)

April 25 - June 8 2002
Opening Thursday April 25 2002 from 17-19

It is a great pleasure to present an exhibition with Lise Harlev's latest works. The show consists of lo-fi copied posters in diverse colours and sizes. The writing on the posters asks questions about nationality and sense of belonging in connection to travelling, living abroad or staying in one's native country.

The typography and layout seem familiar. Lise Harlev has used the layout standards and illustrations known from common computer programs such as "Word". These programs offer the user an easy, catchy and well-arranged typography which makes it possible for everybody to become a layouter in an instant. It is a standardized aesthetics often seen in workplaces for presentation of projects, in canteens, on notice boards or in other kinds of institutional contexts.

This standardized way of expressing oneself corresponds to the questions asked. Likewise, they represent common views on nationality and the identity interwoven with it. They do not solely represent one point of view but comment on different angles to the question of nationality. In this way they poke the spectator and challenges him/her to adopt an attitude to the questions of national identity in the light of globalization and cultural intervention.

Lise Harlev works mainly with text. Former works have examined the conditions of living abroad in connection to suddenly becoming a "representative" of your native country. Or she has worked with the questions of how to pick up a new language. The texts, sayings and questions are always presented in a familiar layout, e.g. taken from institutional exhibition posters or pamphlets from the authorities. The design really interacts with the text and makes it into powerful, authoritarian statements. In this exhibition, however, the layout seems more "democratic" and adds a notion of the posters being working papers since you are also welcome to take some of them home and answer the questions there in your familiar surroundings.

Lise Harlev will graduate this summer from The Royal Danish Art Academy. She participates in the following exhibitions (among others) this year: Big Torino 2002, International Biennial of Young Art; Babel 2002, Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea and Manifesta 2002, Frankfurt. This is the first time she shows in Galleri Nicolai Wallner. The show is curated by Birgitte Kirkhoff Olsen.

If you have any questions, please contact us and we will be happy to assist you.

Kind regards,

Birgitte Kirkhoff Olsen


















 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
















































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