Click the pins to trace the historical odyssey etched by the Norwegians who ventured through the tapestry of The Place of Shade.
The Place of Shade is an artistic research inquiry into contemporary Norwegian culture in South Africa. (See abstract for overview).
The project began with a preliminary research phase, during which we collected data and resources. We sought to comprehend the scope of our subject and where our research might lead. This exposition is just one expression within the broader scope of this ongoing project. Here, we on the one hand reflect on our research, methodology and fieldwork from a fictional standpoint — a kind of meta-methodological reflection — and, on the other hand, we address our Afri-Norge subject matter head-on.
To achieve this, we narrate Ray Franz and Anthony Morton’s part in the artistic research journey through the fictionalised perspectives of two PhD students at The University of Bergen — Vincent Dibble (RSA) and Bjarne Karlsen (NOR) — who leave their shared office to undertake an expedition which parallels ours, travelling to KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. This journey is set in the penumbra of the seismic socio-political events of 1999: The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, The South African Arms Deal, Case no. 4138/98, and the looming global spectre of Y2K. Dibble, an occidental eschatologist and accidental apocalypse-hunter. Bjarne, a philosophical cosmologist and photography enthusiast.
This exposition is imagined as the pair's pin board, suspended upon the expanse of their office wall upon returning to Norway. Behind them it hangs, a silent curation of fever dreams, as they weave theses into existence, their gaze drawn through the window onto the sprawling canvas of Bergen's cityscape.