© Videonale e.V.
Siri Harr Steinvik
*1969 in Sortland NOR, lives and works in in Oslo NOR
Studied at Kunsthøgskolen i Oslo NOR and Statens håndverks- og kunstindustriskole, Fakultät Malerei Oslo NOR
Ignas Krunglevičius
*1969 in Kaunas LTU, lives and works in Oslo NOR
Studied at Norges musikkhøgskole, Oslo NOR
Exhibitions [selection]:
Siri Harr Steinvik
2010 Photos of clothes, Galleri Tipi, Oslo NOR
2009 Nuclear power plants, Podium, Oslo NOR
2008 Magic Systems, Tromsø kunstforening, Tromsø NOR
2007 Bandits-Mages Festival in Bourges FRA
Ignas Krunglevičius
2014 You Imagine What You Desire, 19th Biennale of Sydney AUS
2013 NWUO. Høstutstillingen 2013, Kunstnerneshus, Oslo NOR
Interrogation, Hartware MedienKunstVerein, Dortmunder U, Dortmund GER
2012 Gradients. Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival GBR
I Know Who You Are, I Know What You Do, Podium, Oslo NOR [S]
2011 In the End Was the Word, Ursula Blickle Stiftung, Kraichtal-Unteröwisheim GER
Attribution, Oslo Kunstforening, Oslo NOR [S]
2010 Nam June Paik Award 2010, Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf GER
Aando Fine Art, Berlin GER [S]
2009 Oslo Kunstforening (N) 26th Kassel Documentary Film and Video Festival, Kassel GER
Ultima. contemporary music festival, Oslo NOR
A text scrolls through the opening credits, providing the viewer with background information on what he is abut to see. Is that all there is? documents 25th anniversary of a turbine at the nuclear power plant in Visaginas, Lithuania, whose first reactor is to be decommissioned a few days after the festivities, as a requirement of EU membership. Wobbly amateur shots show a couple up on stage announcing the next part of the program: a film is to be shown about the power plant and its workers. Siri Harr Steinvik's camera slowly moves to a frontal position before the stage, letting the video-watcher share the viewpoint of the guests. But the microphones on the stage partially obstruct the view of the film within a film. They develop a shadow play on the screen, creating a meta-level and becoming an element in their own right. People keep walking past the screen, further heightening our distance to the filmed reality. In the background, a medley of rousing well-known classics plays, underscoring the 'ceremonial' nature of the occasion. And thus the company celebration vacillates just like the projected film between nostalgia and Communist propaganda. The viewer of Is that all there is? finds himself in the bizarre staging of an illusory world, critically illuminated here by Siri Harr Steinvik and Ignas Krunglevicius.
Cécile Zachlod