Exhibition
Munchmuseet on the Move is delighted to present TROLLKREM IMPORT, a performance programme in five parts, conceived by Trollkrem. The five evenings will take place along Oslo’s Grønland neighbourhood. Unusual venues and a variety of acclaimed artists create a unique and unmissable tour of performance art in Oslo’s east end.
Identity politics is a minefield, and the artist duo Trollkrem believe that Oslo’s Grønland neighbourhood is a thriving example of a place where people from different cultures and diverse backgrounds live side by side. With TROLLKREM IMPORT, they tread fearlessly into potentially explosive ground, inviting audiences to engage with the neighbourhood in new ways. Through five eclectic evenings at different venues, spread over time, Grønland’s disparate social spaces are reimagined and temporarily repurposed.
– TROLLKREM IMPORT enables Munchmuseet on the Move to take another step into the Munch Museum’s neighbourhood. Showing performance art at these non-art venues along the main street running though Grønland is new territory for a museum, says curator at the Munch Museum, Natalie Hope O'Donnell.
The performances are free and open to all. The programme Trollkrem have devised seeks to engage audiences on the area’s own terms. The different artists they have invited draw on the venues’ own idiosyncrasies as a backdrop for their blend of dance, design, poetry and performance art. Perhaps they will encounter new audiences among inhabitants and visitors to Grønland?
Over the five nights, the various artists taking part in TROLLKREM IMPORT adopt different approaches transforming the empty central space in the Grønland Basar into a thriving stage for a range of artistic expression. On the first floor of Ivar’s Kro, a unique talk show with internationally acclaimed performance artists offer guests and denizens of the bar a gender-bending evening hosted by Trollkrem’s Tor Erik Bøe. Grønlands Park/Botsparken is the neighbourhood’s green area, situated outside the walls of the Oslo Prison, accommodating children’s play areas, picnickers and sunbathers along the penitentiary walls. The Oslo Pride Parade departs from Grønland, and celebrates a diverse queer community through dance, music and exhibitionism. In a time when extreme right-wing groups are mobilising against anything that challenges heteronormative traditions, Trollkrem use the parade float as a platform to display resistance, reclaiming these groups’ appropriation of a Viking aesthetic. In the fifth and final evening, Trollkrem take over Cafeteatret, where the performance tour culminates in a celebration of Harvest Festival – with a twist.
