Projects 2001

Osculum Infame

3 May, 2001

at Nifca project space,
Suomenlinna, Helsinki

A project by Gardar Eide Einarsson & Matias Faldbakken

2001 sees a new generation at the Nordic Institute for Contemporary Art (NIFCA), with an actively curated programme of activities throughout the Nordic region that challenge conventional exhibition-making. At NIFCA headquarters on the island of Suomenlinna in the port of Helsinki, the modest space will be used to encourage and commission work-in-progress. We are pleased to announce that the first project in this series consolidates the ongoing collaboration between Oslo-based artists Gardar Eide Einarsson and Matias Faldbakken for the first time on their own in the public space.

Following a two-month residency on Suomenlinna to explore ideas, the artists have developed a new work for the specific context of the space at NIFCA. This project takes place for one night only and focuses on the dubious connotations of `networking' at an opening event. As the name suggests, it has its roots in the Osculum Infaine, or profane kiss, whereby each of the participants of a black mass is required to kiss the Sabbath master, said to be inhabited by the devil, on the behind. This has resonance to the subservience and `ass kissing' that is inherent in both corporate and artworld manoeuvring.