Gerðarsafn, Kópavogur Art Museum
Fora
June 3 – September 17, 2023
Welcome to Fora. A square, the setting for a gathering, discourse, musings. Entering Rósa Gísladóttir’s exhibition in Gerðarsafn, a feeling awakens that we are simultaneously located in an ancient meeting-place and a postapocalyptic future. The galleries are calm. The weight of the works gives us grounding. Or is it threatening? Pillars like these stand for thousands of years. Until they suddenly no longer do.
Forum I, the first square, is in Gerðarsafn’s east gallery, the pillars are still standing, even if the whole has become fragmented. We walk around a reconstruction of Forum Romanum in the city of Rome. A scene of election, victory marches, speeches, markets and the heart of the city. In the present, we still cling to the idea of the town square, but they also echo in our electronic being. People gather in internet forums, or fora, to use the Latin plural, to seek advice, make their point, discuss. In Rósa Gísladóttir’s hands, Forum Romanum adapts and develops. It becomes a reconstructed culture scene in Kópavogur centrum. The ancient, holy world merges with the modern everyday. She presents her own interpretation of a bas-relief on Emperor Vespasian’s Temple of Peace, decorated with a bull’s head, an axe, a knife, a bowl to collect blood and other sacrifical implements. The sacrifice is made to advance peace and prosperity. The bas-relief has taken on a more three-dimensional shape on the floor, the bull’s head meets the viewer when they enter the gallery. Fire is also present, perched at the top of the sacrificial altar. The fire that transformed human existence, according to Greek mythology, when Prometheus stole it from the gods and gave it to man. Fire is not only used to cook food and give light, but as an instrument, a weapon. In recent years, many have compared the internet to fire, or to the consequences of Prometheus bringing mankind the power of fire. We have been given the magic powers of the internet but are not quite able to wield it. Artificial intelligence abounds but we are yet to create any culture around it. (Text by Brynja Sveinsdóttir and Hallgerður Hallgrímsdóttir).
Forum I
The Sacrifice, installation: Sacrificial implements, including a bull’s head, an axe, a knife, a bowl to collect blood, and a jug (plaster casts, height 1,9 m and length 2,5 m) 2023
The Sacrifice, installation: Sacrificial implements, including a bull’s head, an axe, a knife, a bowl to collect blood, and a jug (plaster casts, height 1,9 m and length 2,5 m) 2023, Sacrificial altar with fire and fasces (plaster cast, 1 x 1,25 x 0,8 m) 2023
The Sacrifice, installation: Three columns with a frieze showing a negative bas-relief from Emperor Vespasian’s Temple of Peace, decorated with a bull’s head, an axe, a knife, and a bowl to collect blood and other sacrifical implements (plaster, height 3,5 m) 2023, Sacrificial altar with fire and fasces (plaster cast, 1 x 1,25 x 0,8 m) 2023
The Sacrifice, installation: Sacrificial implements, including a bull’s head, an axe, a knife, a bowl to collect blood, and a jug (plaster casts, height 1,9 m and length 2,5 m) 2023, Three columns with a frieze showing a negative bas-relief from Emperor Vespasian’s Temple of Peace, decorated with a bull’s head, an axe, a knife, a bowl to collect blood and other sacrifical implements (plaster, height 3,5 m) 2023
The Sacrifice, installation: Memento mori, column (plaster, height 2,8 m) 2023, Sacrificial implements, including a bull’s head, an axe, a knife, a bowl to collect blood, and a jug (plaster casts, height 1,9 m and length 2,5 m) 2023
The Sacrifice, installation: Stairway to Heaven (plaster cast, 2 x 2,83 x 1,3 m), Sacrificial altar with fire and fasces (plaster cast, 1 x 1,25 x 0,8m), Memento mori, column (plaster cast, height 2,8 m) 2023
The Sacrifice, installation: Memento mori, column (plaster height 2,8 m) 2023
The Sacrifice, installation: Stairway to Heaven (plaster cast 2 x 2,83 x 1,3 m) 2023
The Sacrifice, installation: Three columns with a frieze showing a negative bas-relief from Emperor Vespasian’s Temple of Peace, decorated with a bull’s head, an axe, a knife, a bowl to collect blood and other sacrifical implements (plaster, height 3,5 m) 2023, Sacrificial altar with fire and fasces (plaster cast, 1 x 1,25 x 0,8 m) 2023
The Sacrifice, installation: Three columns with a frieze showing a negative bas-relief from Emperor Vespasian’s Temple of Peace, decorated with a bull’s head, an axe, a knife, a bowl to collect blood and other sacrifical implements (plaster, height 3,5 m) 2023
The Sacrifice, installation: Three columns with a frieze showing a negative bas-relief from Emperor Vespasian’s Temple of Peace, decorated with a bull’s head, an axe, a knife, a bowl to collect blood and other sacrifical implements (plaster, height 3,5 m) 2023 (detail)
The Sacrifice, installation: Three columns with a frieze showing a negative bas-relief from Emperor Vespasian’s Temple of Peace, decorated with a bull’s head, an axe, a knife, a bowl to collect blood and other sacrifical implements (plaster, height 3,5 m) 2023 (detail)
The Sacrifice, installation: Three columns with a frieze showing a negative bas-relief from Emperor Vespasian’s Temple of Peace, decorated with a bull’s head, an axe, a knife, a bowl to collect blood and other sacrifical implements (plaster, height 3,5 m) 2023 (detail)
The Sacrifice, installation: Three columns with a frieze showing a negative bas-relief from Emperor Vespasian’s Temple of Peace, decorated with a bull’s head, an axe, a knife, a bowl to collect blood and other sacrifical implements (plaster, height 3,5 m) 2023 (detail)
The Sacrifice, installation: Sacrificial implements, including a bull’s head, an axe, a knife, a bowl to collect blood, and a jug (plaster casts, height 1,9 m and length 2,5 m) 2023
The Sacrifice, installation: Sacrificial implements, including a bull’s head, an axe, a knife, a bowl to collect blood, and a jug (plaster casts, height 1,9 m and length 2,5 m) 2023 (detail)
The Sacrifice, installation: Sacrificial implements, including a bull’s head, an axe, a knife, a bowl to collect blood, and a jug (plaster casts, height 1,9 m and length 2,5 m) 2023 (detail)
The Sacrifice, installation: Sacrificial implements, including a bull’s head, an axe, a knife, a bowl to collect blood, and a jug (plaster casts, height 1,9 m and length 2,5 m) 2023 (detail)
The Sacrifice, installation: Sacrificial altar (plaster cast, 1 x 1,25 x 0,8m) 2023, Stairway to Heaven (plaster cast, 2 x 2,83 x 1,3 m) 2023 (detail)