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TAGS Sculpture, exhibition, film
YEAR 2025
Faith Looks Better in Slow Motion investigates how religion and football operate as parallel systems of belief, authority and ritual. The project explores how affect, mimicry and collective investment are formalised and staged within institutional frameworks — from sacred narratives to stadia, from mythic heroes to national conflict. Anchored in the iconic Hand of God moment and its contested meaning in the wake of the Falklands/Malvinas conflict, the work reflects on how trust, territorial allegiance and myth‑making are mobilised and made legible through structured performance and cultural infrastructure.
Part of the exhibition How to Enter From the Exit at Onomatopee Gallery
Pine, stoneware, glaze, aluminum, PLA, sealant, tile adhesive.
800 × 2160 × 300 mm + video: 3840 × 2160, 4K UHD, 14'26"23, color, stereo.
www.koozarch.com
TAGS Performance, sculpture, film
YEAR 2024
This project is a part of Echo-Morphed Mythologies in the character of Nolan Meier.
As in previous productions, Nolan Meier works with references to gender, identity and expressions of self to create phantasmic and arguably ‘useless’ objects. In ‘Morphed Flex’ he imagines a modern day Narcissus and draws a parallel between the performance of power in the context of bodybuilders and in the context of finance and politics. Working with videoclips of public appearances of his subject, Meier uses repetition of gestures to exaggerate the performance of masculinity to the point of parody. How does the theater of power differ from actual power, if at all?
TAGS Performance, exhibition, film
YEAR 2025
Produced together with Augustina Lavickaitė & Guus Voorham.
The Actual Main Institute (TAMI) is a starting point for a range of imagined cultural institutions - from public museums to research departments, and art galleries. TAMI investigates what constitutes a valid cultural context by turning around the order of supply and demand between practitioners and institutions. Rather than a physical, permanent venue, it serves as a placeholder for a wide range of expressions and functions.
"Oh - To Be Instituted" brings to life three iterations based on conversations with Rotterdam’s creative practitioners on their ideal institutions. Throughout the exhibition period, Huidenclub transforms from a TAMI factory to a TAMI showroom, housing a dynamic catalog of alternative institutional realities. Tailor-made facades, histories, and visual identities represent the hopes and frustrations of the contemporary creative landscape.
The project is generously supported by Stimuleringsfonds and Gemeente Rotterdam.
TAGS Performance, exhibition, project
YEAR 2022-2024
Het Tijdelijk Museum of Modern Art and it’s exhibition Echo- Morphed Mythologies are both a part the overarching project «Uncontrollability or Paranoid Production and Perception or You’re so Paranoid You Probably Think This Project Is About You», supported by the Talent Development Grant from the Stimuleringsfonds. Through a methodology based on elements from performance, pataphysics and storytelling, I use fictional narratives to create an imaginary context to operate within. For this project, I created Het Tijdelijk Museum and wrote 50 applications for my own Open Call. The art-works, all executed by me while acting out different characters, could be seen in the final exhibition ‘Echo - Morphed Myhtologies’. As Het Tijdelijk Museum of Modern Art is a museum imagined for the sake of the need of a context for the exhibition, it does not have a physical body. However, through the use of a building costume, the small, white cube inside of Huidenclub was dressed up and acted as Het Tijdelijk for the duration of the exhibition.
About the exhibition
Het Tijdelijk Museum proudly presents the exhibition Echo - Morphed Mythologies as a part of its 50 year jubilee.The opening of the exhibition will take place on Friday, 6th of September 2024. The exhibition consists of works by the Netherlands based Nolan Meier (AT), Marion Nelé (FR) and Ole Riemann (DK) whom have all interpreted the myth of Echo and Narcissus - the mountain nymph who fell in love with a warrior who could only love himself.
“Metamorphoses”, and the myth of Echo and Narcissus can be understood as a tale about reflections and replications, the relationship between the observer and the observed, and of transformation from one form to another. It speaks of lust and rejection, self-absorption and blind devotion. It can also be seen as a story about mechanisms of distance and isolation, and of the individual versus the collective - the monologue versus the dialogue. What became of Narcissus, who got lost in the forest, and who refused to indulge in anyone but himself? Or of Echo, who devoted her last days echoing the admiration of a man lost in his own self image? Today we see Echo in algorithms and the mimetic tendencies of the internet and new technologies, while Narcissus has become the name-giver of a personality trait used to characterise a whole generation as well of those in charge.
Words by
Elma Norine, Head curator
(a character by Maren Oline Bang)
www.stimuleringsfonds.nl
TAGS Performance, sculpture
YEAR 2024
This project is a part of Echo-Morphed Mythologies in the character of Ole Riemann.
‘But Narcissus’ body was nowhere to be found. In its place, they discovered a yellow flower with a white corona in its midst.’ (Ovid, 8 AD). ‘Pull Me In and Let Me Drown in Your Abyss’ draws on the myth of Narcissus, who lost himself in his own reflection before undergoing metamorphosis and reappearing as a narcissus flower. In this work, as in others by Riemann, the original function of a carpentry piece is subverted, allowing the object to take on new meaning as a symbolic memento or prop.
TAGS Performance, sculpture
YEAR 2024
This project is a part of Echo-Morphed Mythologies in the character of Marion Nelé.
‘Echo’s Vessels’ imagines Echo who, in a desperate attempt to attract the man she loves, creates bait to hold the only thing he has ever loved: his own reflection in the water. The concept of a vessel connects to both the womb and the process of becoming, as well as to urns and the passage of time. Nelé uses clay as an entry point for anthropological exploration, drawing from her fascination with artifacts as vessels of heritage and carriers of tacit knowledge.
TAGS Project, exhibition, film
YEAR 2021
Part of: Uncontrollability Or Paranoid Production And Perception Or You’re So Paranoid You Probably Think This Project Is About Me.
“The project depicts the illusion of progressiveness, gender normativity, and consistent stigmas within craftsmanships. Flex for Flux aims to dismantle ubiquitous preconceived bias and question whether or not contemporary art- and design institutions are fuelling stereotypes of conservative homogeneous practices and ideals. Are we still clinging to conservative notions of feminine and masculine crafts - the soft and safe versus the hard and (potentially) dangerous? A workshop manager, two students, an alumnus and a philosopher, all from the same institution, gathers after hours in a workshop, spending their time in a secret, self-initiated crochet club. To compensate for what may be perceived as feminine behaviour, the group creates masculine emblems in the shape of biceps.”
Text by Maren Bang in the role of Nolan Meier.
TAGS Project, thesis
YEAR 2021
What does it take to succeed? And how does one survive evaluation and critique? The project looks at the paranoia which I perceive as present in the field, the relationship between work and parawork, my own inferiority complex(es), and criticality vs. criticism.
In an attempt to gain control over the exam-situation, I made an analysis of previous projects from the department, and used the insight I gained to construct three projects (see the following pages) under false narratives. To be prepared for all scenarios I created projects aimed for both success and failure. Statements about the projects were written according to the common lingo, referring to graduation catalogues from previous years, and assessment forms were written in the voice of the institution. Finally all three projects were presented as the works of someone else entirely, giving me the role as both creator, presenter, evaluator and spectator simultaneously.
But why did it feel safer to take on the strenuous endeavour of producing three projects under false narratives rather than to take an honest stand and manifest an opinion? In an attempt to break the circle of critique and critical projects, challenge the ideas of an evaluation process and save my own skin, the project reproduces the systems of which it aims to critique. But is that my fault? Or am I simply a (damaged) product of the systems I address?
In the words of Nadine Botah: “Why would it be easier to produce three convincing projects under false narratives than manifest a single project based on actual conviction? Self-declared “paranoid practitioner” Maren Bang depicts an undefinable, rootless and paranoid field shaped by inferiority complexes that use intellectual, wordy, complicated criticality in an attempt to make itself appear relevant and important. The fake projects are based on previously successful graduation projects and evaluated on the institution’s shadow standards. Through this performative deconstruction, the project demonstrates how following the recommendations of criticality and self-reflexivity only reproduces the systems being critiqued. Is it easier to dismiss the project as cynical than recognize it’s about you?”
TAGS Exhibition, sculpture
YEAR 2023
During a period of grant applications, I submitted a project for an Open Call, wishing to exhibit in a group show in Berlin. The curator selected my project (a crocheted biceps decorated with embroidered tribal-tattoos). We emailed back and forth for months, planning the production and presentation of the piece, and the curator produced the posters, leaflets and online communication of the project. The piece was packed and sent from Norway in good time for the exhibition, but due to a tear along the way, it ended up on a re-packing station in Frankfürt. As a result, the project never made it to the actual exhibition. However, my presence was very much apparent, through my mentioning on all prints and social media communication. My purpose with exhibiting was thus somehow still obtained.
Months later, the piece was returned to me - the content in good order, but the packaging torn and covered in addresses and clearances. Accompanying it in the pictures to the left is a 3 meter long curated selection of the emails between artist and curator depicting the story of an non-exhibit and questioning the reasons that motivates both artist and curator to exhibit at all.
‘Big in Berlin’ has been shown at GRAW at Huidenclub in Rotterdam, and at the Albert Van Abbehuis in Eindhoven.
TAGS Project, film
YEAR 2019
David Lynch created Twin Peaks in the 1990’s and it has since then become a cult-classic. The TV-series is by some interpreted as a meta-critique; a TV-series critiquing TV-series. Lynch tried to engage a searching attitude in the audience - leaving only clues, while subtly pointing out the dark sides of the industry; we crave for instant gratification and temporary relief. ”Learning from Lynch” attempts to translate some of Lynch’s concern for the media-industry to personal concerns for my own field. Sampled footage is presented in two parallel movies, played on a total of nine TV-screens.