Photos by Oddbjørn Erland Aarstad.
The work consists of a reading of a text by a museum director, intervened by an amateur choir which breaks out singing ”I want to leave this place, I would rather pick flowers”. The text read out loud takes the form of an opening speech declaring Anna Ihles genious in an art historic context, and discusses her mental health as a resource.
The performance references directly to these events in Norwegian publim:
1) A radio interview from 10 January 2018 with the director of Spekter (Norway’s employers’ union), Anne-Kari Bratten, who discussed women working part-time. She ridiculed women who would rather pick flowers than work full time.
2) A speech held at the opening of a Bjarne Melgaard/ Sverre Bjertnes- exhibition which praised their genious and romantized suicide.
The concept of recreation undergirds the work Anna Ihle will show at Kuppelkupp on the Thursday before International Workers’ Day (1 May). There are also some direct sources of inspirations for these works: for one, a radio interview from 10 January 2018 with the director of Spekter (Norway’s employers’ union), Anne-Kari Bratten, who discussed women working part-time, for another, a speech held at the opening of the exhibition Bjarne Melgaard/ Sverre Bjertnes in Stavanger earlier this year. As part of her instruction-performance, Ihle has invited the local Voice of the Soul Choir, directed by Priscila Serrano, to perform a work composed by Jens Borge. By making small, ambiguous interventions in the choral programme and in the cupola, Ihle actualizes questions about work, productivity, free time and the reigning ideals and hierarchies in society.
Video documentation. Cameras by Kajsa Dahl and Benjamin Birkedal, editing by Kai Arne Svanæs-Soot:
CONTRIBUTORS
Voice of the Soul Choir: Ragnhild Brandsøy, Ingrid Kristine Pierfelice, Dora Luz Cobos Pérez, Therese Stenlund, Nina Knutsen Kirkengen, Linda Eloise Pedersen, Trine Gulsrud and Tuulikki Põllãnen
Conductor: Priscilla Serano
Composer: Jens Borge
Photograhy: From the private Facebook page of Astrid Harbo.
Illustration in flyer: Anna Ihle
Reading: Hanne Beate Ueland
Writers: Helga Nyman and Anna Ihle
Anna Ihle 