WHAT I AM TOLD ABOUT THE PAST

  

LISE HARLEV

WHAT I AM TOLD ABOUT THE PAST

Galerija Miroslav Kraljević

Šubićeva 29

Zagreb, Croatia

Opening Thursday, April 28, 8 - 11 pm

Exhibition April 28 - May 15, 2011

History, understood as a category of human existence, is older than the

written word, claims Hannah Arendt in her book “Between Past and

Future”. Its origin - not in a historical but a poetic sense - lies in

the moment when at the Phoenician court Odysseus listens to the story of

his own adventures and misadventures, the story of is own life which at

that point becomes a “thing” in itself, separated from him, and

presented to others as “an object”.[1] In other words, it represents a

moment in which history is for the first time symbolically objectified,

turned into facts which are later confirmed and reaffirmed, repeatedly

with each new act of narration, i.e. presentation. Our experience of a

certain space, site, or a topos, is inseparable from our knowledge of

its past. Spatial presence of a site is a product of a multitude of

macro and micro histories, which can be more or less visible. However,

despite the dichotomy between categories of space (the material, visible

element) and time, i.e. history (or immaterial and physical elusiveness

of time), both are intertwined; neither is the space static, nor the

time linear. “Here” is inseparable from “now”; its past and future are

elusive. Or, in words of Doreen Massey, “(...) “here” is no more (and no

less) than our encounter, and what is made of it. It is, irretrievably,

here and now. It won’t be the same “here” when it is no longer now.”[2]

Lise Harlev’s work “What I Am Told About the Past” is a result of the

art residency in Zagreb in February this year. Understanding Zagreb as a

locus with its own specific history, the artist observed the ways in

which the contemporary traces of this history, as well as her own

expectations, have shaped the experience of getting to know the city. On

wooden panels, in a very direct way, Harlev articulates a number of

statements and questions concerning our perception of the history, its

authenticity, nostalgia, and, finally, our universal need for history.

At the same time, the background graphic elements create a number of

associations – from timelessness of simple geometric shapes, through

allusions to the 1950s graphic design, to a reminiscence of sign systems

used on info boards at “historically significant” sites. Both elements,

the textual and the graphic, thus create a completely new, ambiguous

context – a very subjective experience of history, time and space is

presented in visually very simple, familiar and recognizable way.

Lise Harlev (1973), a Danish artist based in Berlin, studied at

Staedelschule, Frankfurt am Main, and The Royal Danish Academy of Fine

Arts, Copenhagen. Harlev’s work has been included in exhibitions such as

Manifesta 4 (Frankfurt am Main, 2002), Something no one else has,

Liljevalchs Konsthall (Stockholm, 2003), Momenum (Moss, 2004), I don’t

always agree, Galleria Maze (Turin, 2005), This Land is My Land,

Kunsthalle Nurnberg (Nuremberg, 2006), I (Ich) / Performative Ontology,

Secession (Vienna, 2006), You Won’t Feel a Thing, Wyspa Institute of Art

(Gdansk, 2007), Terms of Use, Centro Cultural Montehermoso (Vitoria,

2008), Translation Paradoxes and Misunderstandings, Shedhalle (Zurich,

2008), Liquid Frontiers, Tri Postal (Lille, 2009), Monument to

Transformation, Centre for Visual Introspection (Bucharest, 2009) and

Watchmen, Liars and Dreamers, Frac Ile-de-France/ Le Plateau (Paris,

2010).

The exhibition is supported by: Ministry of Culture - Republic of

Croatia, City of Zagreb - Office for Education, Culture and Sport,

Danish Arts Council Committee for International Visual Arts.

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[1] Arendt, H. Between Past and Future. London: Penguin Books, 2006: 39

[2] Massey, D. For Space. London: SAGE Publications, 2007: 139