HOLIDAY IN ARCADIA combines works that play on performances about another place. Unlike most famous utopias, Arkadia is also an actual place. Through ancient, Renaissance and classical art, the Greek region has been used as a symbol of a pastoral perfection characterised by balance and harmony.
The most famous production of Arcadia in art history is the French classist Nicolas Poussin's painting An in Arcadia Ego (1637-38) which, despite being a conventional memento mori, is also characterised by an atmosphere of cheerful nostalgia and wonder.
HOLIDAY IN ARCADIA is a group show that combines works that play on performances about another place. Without the ideological luggage that reads the word «utopia», Arcadia is the place we can imagine and dream about; like the disco ball or chandelier up the ceiling, the dream of the perfect beat, the ultimate rare music recording no one heard before, the phone call we've been waiting for, or the day when all the towers and spikes will lighten like rockets and disappear into space.
Arcadia is neither here nor now nor on the other side. It is a place that is possible to access, which we can seek for when we want and when we need it, but as we still use it as if it was not an actual place, as a sign of or hint about anything that's possible. Situations or conditions that are not necessarily neither extraterrestrial nor perfect, but which have a tinge of magic attached to them.
With Catherine Bolduc, Jean Carn & Larry Levan, Mai Hofstad Gunnes & Ryuichi Sakamoto, Bjørn-Kowalski Hansen, Kristin Nordhøy, Martin Skauen, Sex Tags and Øystein Aasan. Curated by Erlend Hammer and co-produced by Lydgalleriet.