From the exhibition Sol Morén and Jonas Holmberg / Divan at Bildmuseet 2004-06-06 to 2004-08-29
From the exhibition Sol Morén and Jonas Holmberg / Divan at Bildmuseet 2004-06-06 to 2004-08-29
From the exhibition Sol Morén and Jonas Holmberg / Divan at Bildmuseet 2004-06-06 to 2004-08-29
The Divan installation comprises a room furnished only with a divan - a reconstruction of a classical-analysis divan. A voice is audible in the room, reading selected quotes from a philosophical work.
The philosophical work Anti-Oedipus is the point of departure for the sound installation Divan by the artist Sol Morén and the composer Jonas Holmberg, which is being presented for the first time at Bildmuseet.
Anti-Oedipus - Capitalism and Schizophrenia (1972) by the philosopher Gilles Deleuze and the psychoanalyst Félix Guattari is one of post-structuralism's most important texts. In the book's preface Michel Foucault calls Anti-Oedipus an introduction to a non-fascist attitude to life. He is referring not just to political fascism but also to the fascism within ourselves that makes us deny our own desires. Deleuze and Guattari formulate a political analysis of desire as expressed in western culture.
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Sol Morén and Jonas Holmberg say in their programme explanation of Divan:
"We're not philosophers. Our culture is popular culture. We read a philosophical work - in this instance Anti-Oedipus, said to be the world's best-selling work of philosophy. Then we play with the text, we play it, make a cover, an interpretation, a variation, a mutation."
"Freud is reputed to have said 'Sometimes a cigar is actually just a cigar'. What does that mean? The Freud Museum in London hasn't a clue where the quote comes from. Perhaps it wasn't even Freud who said it. This quote, though, has been hanging in the air during our work on Divan."
Sol Morén (b. 1964) and Jonas Holmberg (b. 1967) live and work in Umeå. Sol Morén graduated from Umeå Academy of Fine Arts in 1995 and has worked on artistic projects, exhibitions and public commissions.
Jonas Holmberg, who trained at the Gotland School of Composition, has written theatre and film music and is a member of the pop group Komeda.
For several years Jonas and Sol have been working on joint projects and sound installations, most recently at Umeå's Galleri Verkligheten in 2002 and 2003.
