The Anti-Social Majority - opening and performance 28th October 7pm at Kunsthall Oslo. Lars Laumann invites Kjersti Andvig, Vela Arbutina, Benjamin A. Huseby, Jeanette Main, Stewart Uoo, Dan-Ola Persson and Rein Vollenga.

Kunsthall Oslo is pleased to present:

The Anti-Social Majority—Lars Laumann invites Kjersti Andvig, Vela Arbutina, Benjamin A. Huseby, Jeanette Main, Stewart Uoo, Dan-Ola Persson and Rein Vollenga.

29th October–23rd December 2011
Please join us for the opening on Friday 28th October at 7pm
with the performance of a new work by Laumann, Main, Persson & Uoo at 8pm
After party at Jaeger, Oslo in association with Natt og Dag

Trelastgata 3 0191 Oslo
info@kunsthalloslo.no
www.kunsthalloslo.no

Kunsthall Oslo is pleased to present the collaborative exhibition The Anti-Social Majority. Lars Laumann has invited seven friends and fellow artists from Europe and the US to show some of the film works, sculpture and installations they have worked on together over recent years. A new work by Laumann, Main, Uoo and Persson—combining extraordinary images gathered by Laumann from certain Central European churches with guitar and theremin music—will be performed for the first time on the exhibition's opening night. An edited version of this work will then form a central part of the exhibition.

The collaborations on view will include The Sami People's Flag in Neon by Andvig and Laumann; the film You Can't Pretend To Be Somebody Else—You Already Are by Huseby and Laumann, which reimagines the final days of the singer, model and sometime Warhol superstar Nico; Duet by Laumann and Persson, in which Margaret Thatcher and Donald Rumsfeld are autotuned to sing some of their best-known lines; and Love Parade, a sculpture and video installation by Laumann and Vollenga.

The title of the exhibition was suggested by Henrik Ibsen's play An Enemy of the People (1882), and underlines Laumann's politicised approach to the aesthetics and ethics of art and documentary film. The exhibition's emphasis on collaboration connects directly to Laumann's interest in finding alternative ways of working and modes of representation that avoid reinforcing the dominant ideologies of contemporary culture, that aim instead towards the imagination of a world that is at once stranger, and more humane.

The show will also include a video programme with further collaborative and individual works, and a collection of publications and recordings by the invited artists presented in cooperation with Torpedo Bookshop.

Kjersti Andvig (Norway) graduated from the National Academy of Art in Oslo in 2003. As an artist, her work often takes the form of long-term commitments to situations that demand complete personal dedication. She has had solo exhibitions at Rekord, Oslo, Triangle, Marseille, and Akershus Kunstsenter, Lillestrøm, and her work has been seen in group exhibitions including Lights On at the Astrup Fearnley Museum, Oslo, the Carnegie Art Award exhibition, Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, and the Lofoten International Art Festival 2011.

Vela Arbutina (Switzerland) is a graphic designer, trained at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam and Central St. Martins College of Art and Design, London. She is co-editor and art director of the semiannual magazine Girls Like Us and works as an independent designer in Amsterdam.

Benjamin Alexander Huseby (Norway) studied at Chelsea College of Art, London and the National Academy of Art, Oslo. He works primarily with photography and installation, often juxtaposing his interests in esoteric science, natural history and the counter-culture. His artwork has been exhibited at KunstWerke, Berlin, Fotogalleriet, Oslo and Momentum, the Nordic Art Biennial among many other places. His fashion and editorial photography has been featured in magazines including i-D, Another Magazine, Vogue, Dazed & Confused, Butt, Art Review and Harper's Bazaar.

Lars Laumann (Norway) studied at the Norwegian National Academy of Art in Oslo. Laumann's work ranges from experimental video collages and installations to long-form documentary films; what marks out his practice as a whole is a radical acceptance of the validity of voices and lifestyles marginalised by mainstream society. Laumann took part in the 5th Berlin Biennial in 2008 and the Liverpool Biennial in 2010, and won the Statoil Art Prize in 2009. His work has been shown at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Whitechapel Gallery, London; Kunsthalle Basel; Galerie West, Den Haag; Maureen Paley, London; Foxy Productions, New York and the Astrup Fearnley Museum, Oslo among many other venues.

James Jeanette Main (UK) is a Scottish performance artist, stylist, actor and DJ based in London. A long time collaborator of Benjamin A. Huseby, he has appeared in photo shoots for i-D, Vogue and V. Main also runs the club night 'Jeanette's Jungle Fever' at Vogue Fabrics, London.

Dan-Ola Persson (Sweden) is a musician currently based in Oslo. He is guitarist and singer in the Swedish death metal band Cardinal Sin and has also performed with Entity and The Ancient's Rebirth. His latest record, with music composed for Lars Laumann's films, was released by Torpedo Press in 2010.

Stewart Uoo (USA) is an artist based in New York. He studied at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco and at the Städelschule, Frankfurt. His work has been exhibited in shows at  White Columns, NY; 179 Canal, NY; Papo's VIP, ArteBA, Buenos Aires. He has an upcoming solo exhibition at 47 Canal, NY.

Rein Vollenga (The Netherlands) studied in Den Bosch and now lives in Berlin. He creates sensuous, suggestive objects that can be worn as sculptural adornments; these 'wearable sculptures' have been commissioned by Paris fashion label Mugler and by performers including Lady Gaga. Vollenga has upcoming solo exhibitions of his work at Suvi Lehtinen, Berlin and Candy, Tokyo.