Nordic Outbreak ended its Nordic tour visiting Umeå in northern Sweden, for the Inauguration of the city of Umeå as European Capital of Culture 2014, January 31-February 2, 2014. A selection from the Nordic Outbreak program was projected on temporary canvases installed as a cube in the City Hall Park and integrated with the winter landscape.
Superflex, Burning Car(2008) installed in Rådhusparken. Photo by Håkan Larsson.
Nordic Outbreak: Confronting Elements
The Nordic Outbreak exhibition in Umeå explored the theme Confronting Elements. In the Greek notion of the classical elements fire, air, water and earth, each element is always in transformation from one state to an other. Nature’s elements have been romanticized in Nordic visual aesthetics in a tradition emerging from landscape paintings with nature’s core elements as properties for human spirit and vitality. While questioning the reality and materiality of nature elements, Nordic Outbreak: Confronting Elements also questioned the myth of them. Installed in a large-scale, cubic installation in direct contact with the snow, the installation established both coherency and confrontation between abstracted elements in the artworks that simultaneously enhance and resolute each other.
The installed artworks included: Ken Are Bongo, The wind whispers there is someone behind the tundra (2006) Antti Laitinen, Snowman (2006) Dan Lestander, Dreams and Wishes (2010) Sigurdur Gudjónsson, Veil (2012) Pernille With Madsen, Transition (2008-2009) Dodda Maggý,There, there (2013) Miia Rinne, SEA (2012) Superflex, Burning Car (2008)
Burning Car is a film work by Superflex in which a car is being set on fire. The empty car starts to burn, the cabin is filled with smoke and fire, car-paint is bobbling, tires explode. Towards the end the car is burned out completely.
More documentation from Nordic Outbreak – Umeå here.
Nordic Outbreak in Umeå was curated by Tanya Toft and Dan Lestander.
About Umeå2014 Umeå has been appointed European Capital of Culture 2014. Each year EU appoints two cultural capitals of Europe, with the aim of highlighting our shared cultural heritage and stimulate interest in the cultural riches of the countries in the EU. In Umeå this award is an important part of the municipality’s long-term growth strategy. This will create a greater interest in the city and its stakeholders, and contribute to culture-driven growth.
