Counter Imaginaries

2023’s festival exhibition took inspiration from a classic of Norwegian ‘new wave’ cinema, Erik Løchen’s Remonstrance (Motforestilling, 1972). Here Motforestilling is presented alongside a series of moving image works by contemporary artists including Ed Atkins, Lene Berg, Kevin B. Lee, Maryam Tafakory, James Kienitz Wilkins and Rehana Zaman, while the whole exhibition has been designed by artist Tobias Putrih.

A satire about a film crew trying to shoot a political film, Motforestilling is unique in that its 5 reels can be shown in any order, meaning there are 120 potential versions of the film. Putrih has been invited to create a unique architecture in which to experience Motforestilling, in which the audience must negotiate the film’s different parts and each other.

Løchen wanted his film to unsettle the certainties and conventions of postwar Norwegian life, not only in its themes – the thriller-like narrative touches on terrorism, surveillance, great power politics, NATO etc. – but also in its form. With its fractured narrative open to different interpretations, Motforestilling was ahead of its time in imagining its audience as co-authors.

For the second part of the show Putrih has devised an auditorium of moving parts in which to watch the shorter contemporary films. These very different works share a curious, skeptical interest in how today’s moving images are produced, from the conventions of television interviews to the fate of cinema in the age of social media.

Thanks to Hilde Løchen and the Nasjonalbibliotek, including Øivind Hanche, Bente Kvalvik, Tore Dybing Myklebust and Sem Steinmo of Norway.

Curator: PRISMS / Mike Sperlinger

Technical Producer: James S. Lee

Technical team: Ruth Aitken, Olga Gry Becker, Erik Fallgren, Marcus Fredriksen, Markus Garvin, Amalie Holthen, Mihály Stefanovicz

Translation: Terje Øverås