Borealis 2009

STEPHEN PRINA

at 1200
Venue: BERGEN KUNSTHALL NO. 5

The American artist Stephen Prina is one of the most important representatives of post-conceptual strategies in contemporary art. Prina has used classic conceptual art, and at the same time its historical predecessor, modernism, as the point of departure for his own artistic output.

In his works Stephen Prina sets up a complex poetics which explores the relationship between artistic production, presentation and reception. He problematizes the exchanges that are always present in the space between an artwork and its art-historical refe-ren-ces, historical precursors and direct influences, whether these references are obscure and concealed or directly visible in the work. Prina’s works become concentrated focal points for an almost unmanageable number of references and allusions to other works, as well as various layers of contextual meaning.

The exhibition is part of the annual collaboration between Bergen Kunsthall and the Borealis Festival. Stephen Prina is also a musician, and is behind several solo releases as well as musical collaborations with among others David Grubbs and The Red Crayola. Prina’s hyper-referential praxis is also a natural element in this year’s festival, in which key concepts are memory, dreams and transcriptions.

Stephen Prina (b. 1954) lives and works in Los Angeles, California and Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he is a professor at Harvard University. Prina has had solo exhibitions at among other venues Artpace, San Antonio; DAAD Galerie, Berlin; Los Angeles Municipal Gallery; Museé d’art Moderne et Contemporain, Geneva; P.S.1 Museum, New York; and The Power Plant, Toronto. He has also participated in a succession of group exhibitions, for example at Documenta IX and the Venice Biennale (1990).

 

Opening hours: 1200-1700

 

This exhibition is a collaboration between Bergen Kunsthall and the Borealis festival.