HANS HAMID RASMUSSEN
UNEVEN TRANSITIONS
11.03 - 23.04
Trafo Kunsthall is pleased to present Hans Hamid Rasmussen's solo exhibition UNEVEN TRANSITIONS . The exhibition opens on March 11th at 3 pm by the mayor of Asker Kommune , Lene Conradi.
In the Kunsthallen at Trafo, Hans Hamid Rasmussen has filled the space with a total installation consisting of scaffolding, wood, plasterboard and chicken wire. The surface is then sprayed with shotcrete and the form is created on site. Functional elements from the cityscape - pipes, cables, wire - form part of the visual whole of the construction.
The idea for the installation stems from photographic studies of two neighborhoods Rasmussen himself has lived in, and has a close relationship with - the Kasbah in Algiers and the Old Town in Oslo. As older neighborhoods, both places are visibly shaped by the needs of different eras - mechanical vehicles have replaced horses and donkeys, cables and wires for energy and communication systems have been made invisible and water and sewage are laid in pipes underground. The urban topography reveals how new and old are woven together and cities are built - layer upon layer.
Rasmussen is interested in how encounters between buildings of different dates create irregularities and new spatial solutions. With the exhibition Uneven Transitions, he examines the relationship of surfaces to each other. One of his artistic ambitions has been to create an installation in concrete. To achieve this, he left his position as amanuensis and professor of visual arts in the textile department at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts to take on various jobs in the construction industry in order to get up close and personal with the material. At a number of different workplaces, Rasmussen has observed how experienced craftsmen use technology and materials that constitute the urban visual expression of our time, and thus have incorporated their diverse experiences into their artistic work.
Hans Hamid Rasmussen (b. Algeria 1963) lives and works in Oslo and Rakkestad. Rasmussen has studied at the Academy of Photography at Konstfack in Stockholm and the Norwegian Academy of Fine Arts in Oslo. He has previously had solo exhibitions at Shoot Gallery in Oslo and Martin Asbæk Gallery in Copenhagen. He has also participated in the Biennale de Havana in 2019, the Hangzhou Triennial of Fiber Art in 2016, the Gothenburg International Biennale in 2011, the Third Triennial in Guangzhou in 2008 and the 26th São Paulo Biennale in 2004. Rasmussen's works have also been purchased for several public collections both nationally and internationally.
The artist also recently published the book Elva er et Annet Sted in collaboration with Ellef Prestsæter, with text by author Per Petterson. The book can be purchased at Trafo Kunsthall , or can be ordered at www.trafokunsthall.no .
IN CONNECTION WITH THE EXHIBITION:
ARTIST CONVERSATION BETWEEN HANS HAMID RASMUSSEN AND ELLEF PRIESTSÄTER APRIL 15.
Hans Hamid Rasmussen has a strong interest in physical work, which is also expressed in his artistic practice. He has himself taken on work in a number of different industries - as a construction worker in the construction industry and with the rehabilitation of tunnels in the Lierås tunnel, to name a few. In 1985 he was a young timber rafter on the Glomma, an experience he documented with photographs that last year resulted in the book “The River is Another Place - Pictures from Timber Rafting on the Glomma” (Torpedo Press). The publication was a collaboration with Guttormsgaard Arkiv and Ellef Prestsæter, with whom Rasmussen has had a professional exchange for several years. This Saturday they will meet for a conversation at Trafo Kunsthall about art and work.
Ellef Prestsæter is an art historian and curator. He is the artistic director of the Guttormsgaard Archive and a member of the art and research group Institute for Computational Vandalism. He is currently involved in the following exhibition projects: Open Creation and Its Enemies: Asger Jorn in Situation (IVAM, Valencia) and Helsing frå Samiland (Guttormsgaard Archive, Blaker).
