The 16th edition of Vestfossen KunstLaboratorium, at approximately one hour train from
Oslo, will be inaugurated on 5th May, at 1:30 p.m. Curated by Demetrio Paparoni, the
international exposition ‘Contemporary Chaos’ will present over 60 artists.
The show wants to emphasise the multiplying of artistic driving forces by focusing the
attention on artists coming from all over the world, including areas which once were
considered absolutely peripheral. The opening of new markets and the effects of the digital
revolution have progressively brought about such an amount of information on art issues and
events deemed important, while being often just ephemeral, to thwart every attempt of
critical-theoretical grouping. The linguistic chaos deriving from the language superimposition
is thus a phenomenon going beyond the overcoming of movements and trends recorded since
the Eighties of the 20th century.
Contemporary Chaos includes paintings, photographs, videos, performances and great
installations. Starting from the premise that finding a unitary tissue in the scene of
contemporary art would be absurd both in the West and in the East, the exhibition denies the
existence of global linguistic models. Differently from what happened with Modernism,
present-day art doesn’t plan the future but analyses the present, focusing on the “here and
now.” In the intricacy of languages that Contemporary Chaos takes into account along the
four floors of the huge building which was once a cellulose production plant, the remarkable
presence of painting, usually marginalised in great international exhibitions, has a great
significance beside videos, photos, sculptures and installations.
As Paparoni writes in the catalogue: “Art has not operated in the realm of language for several
decades. Its goal is the reflection on the present, on how and why society has assumed its
present connotations. This explains the many works that present contaminations with
photojournalism, the many references to the history of art and the narrative-symbolic turning
point of painting. […] Many artworks created in the new millennium tend to accommodate
narratives that do not transcend reality, while at the same time amplifying the symbolic
system. In cases in which, in contrast with the so-called global culture, contemporary
narrative traces the work back to the author’s history and place in the world, the symbolic
dimension extends its meaning universally.”
Artists: Ljubodrag Andric (Canada), Paola Angelini (Italy), Ghazaleh Avarzamani (Iran),
Nadiah Bamadhaj (Malaysia), Domenico Bianchi (Italy), Andrea Bianconi (Italy), Thomas
Braida (Italy), Vanni Cuoghi (Italy), Espen Dietrichson (Norway), Lars Elling (Norway),
Sergio Fermariello (Italy), Barnaba Fornasetti/Valeria Manzi (Italy), Letizia Fornasieri (Italy),
Giovanni Frangi (Italy), Helgi Þorgils Friðjónsson (Iceland), Daniel & Geo Fuchs (Germany),
Daniele Galliano (Italy), Timothy Greenfield-Sanders (USA), Gottfried Helnwein
(Austria/Ireland), Paolo Iacchetti (Italy), Liu Jianhua (China), Bree Jonson (Philippines),
Tamás Kaszás (Hungary), Ruprecht von Kaufmann (Germany), Chiara Lecca (Italy), Justin
Lim (Malaysia), Sverre Malling (Norway), Masbedo (Italy), Sebastiano Mauri (Italy), Rafael
Megall (Armenia), Alessandro Mendini (Italy), Maria Mulas (Italy), Kristoffer Myskja
(Norway), Marco Neri (Italy), Nunzio (Italy), Georg Óskar (Iceland), Tony Oursler (USA),
Ruben Pang (Singapore), Francesco Polenghi (Italy), Laurent Reypens (Belgium), Bernardí
Roig (Spain), Anne Samat (Malaysia), Nicola Samorì (Italy), Christoph Schirmer (Austria),
Andres Serrano (USA), Vibeke Slyngstad (Norway), Doug and Mike Starn (USA), Tjook
(Netherlands), Liliane Tomasko (Switzerland), Natee Utarit (Thailand), Ronald Ventura
(Philippines), Nicola Verlato (Italy), Luis Vidal (Spain), Wang Guangyi (China), Wang
Qingsong (China), Wang Youshen (China), Peter Welz (Germany), Rose Wylie (United
Kingdom), Sun Xun (China), Yue Minjun (China).