Polyphilia 

Polyphilia – the practice of/desire for intimate relationships with more than one partner. 

«She told me relationships are always about giving and giving. Not giving and taking, like we’re conditioned to believe. As a verb, to give means -to freely transfer the possession of (something) to (someone). But as a noun, the word has a more intimidating tone — the capacity to bend or alter in shape under pressure. 

So how (and what) can I give? Do I have to change form to make it clear that I love?

Plant-persons are absolute masters when it comes to the act of giving. They grow and alter their shapes until the day they die. They give themselves to everyone – behaving as food for almost every living being on the planet. Even their waste product is sorely needed, as their trash maintains the atmospheric oxygen levels on our planet.

In my quest to find love, I’ve come to look at them for inspiration and guidance. Could it, perhaps, be true that it’s easier to give yourself to multiple partners rather than only one? Could it be that plant-persons have some answers for us?»

Polyphilia is a piece specially made for gallery KiT and Meta.Morf Biennale, and is part of Renate Synnes Handal’s ongoing project En annen partner. In it the artist explores topics like love, relationships, and loneliness — navigating through the art- and everyday life together with her special partner Gullis (Epipremnum Aureum). 

Over the past two years, they’ve lived and worked together, all the time with a focus on developing their romantic bond. By now, they have shown three fragments from their shared reality, Suddenly, you complete me at Bergen Kunsthall, 36 at Visningsrommet USF and En annen partner at Atelier Nord ANX. They have also traveled to Renate’s hometown Ålesund, where they did a residency in the middle of the forest in Telemark, as well as they have taken a charter-trip to beautiful Agia Marina, Crete. 

Renate Synnes Handal

Renate Synnes Handal is based in Bergen, where she got her master’s degree in Fine Art from the University of Bergen in 2018. Her practice can best be described as a platform for story-telling, where big ontological questions function as a blurry backdrop. What are we? How do we live now? How do we choose to relate to ourselves, each other and our surroundings? It is a practice that examines the political responsibility we possess as people-persons, since we freely get to decide who and what we include as important in our society.

FAEN EXHIBITION HAS BEEN CANCELED
DUE TO CORONA SITUATION IN NORWAY

FAEN EXHIBITION 2020: FY FAEN SÅ BRA!

Meta.Morf Biennale X: Digital Wild
Location: Gallery KiT, Trondheim
Exhibition opening: Sunday, 08.03.2019, 16:00

FB EVENT HERE

Darknet spa for meditation? Scenography made in collaboration with fungi? A love story between a woman and her plant? A deep-sea dive into our biological origin and possible future? FY FAEN SÅ BRA! FAEN (Female Artistic Experiments Norway) Exhibition: FY FAEN SÅ BRA! is the second group exhibition by four young female artists based in Norway: Annike Flo (NO), Anne Cecilie Lie (NO), Renate Synnes Handal (NO), Unnur Andrea Einarsdóttir (IS/NO) and curated by Zane Cerpina.

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FAEN Academy

FAEN Exhibition is made by the FAEN Academy – a pilot project supporting the development of new artworks by young female artists working with experimental art in Norway. The FAEN Academy focuses on art productions from concept to exhibition-ready work in close collaboration with FAEN partners. 

The FAEN Academy is needed to give production and exhibition opportunities for young female artists working with cutting edge art and experimental artistic approaches. The FAEN Academy offers an interdisciplinary, supportive, and reflective environment for producing experimental art. It is for artists that address and challenge contemporary issues in society, politics, culture, and ecology: art that makes the audience question and reflect on the world through new, unique experiences and perspectives. 

FAEN Exhibition 2020

During Meta.Morf 2020, FAEN is showing a selection of works that have been further developed especially for the exhibition at Gallery KiT in collaboration with FAEN. The selected works explore the contemporary challenges of co-existence with each other, non-human species and ecological phenomenons, as well ourselves and our role in this age of crisis called the Anthropocene. 

Exhibited Works

Annike Flo’s “c o c r e a t : e : u r e s :  s h i f t” is a performative aesthetic experiment created in collaboration between the artist and non-human guests that already live at the Gallery KiT. Her work invites visitors to see themselves as a meta-organisms. 

Renate Synnes Handal’s installation “Polyphilia” challenges us to fall in love with plants. “Polyphilia” derives from her project “Another Partner” that follows a romantic relationship between a lady and her plant. 

Unnur Andrea Einarsdóttir invites the audience into “The Darknet Spa” to investigate the dark side of our digital hive-mind and experience the collective psyche we have formed through the digital technologies.

Anne Cecilie Lie’s bio-digital art installation “Intersected Waterbodies” is the result of an artistic research project that dives into the deep-sea mining industry investigating our biological origin and imagining our possible future.

Organizers

FAEN Exhibition is organized and curated by Zane Cerpina / TEKS – Trondheim Electronic Arts Centre. The FAEN experts include Kirsty Kross, Kristin Bergaust, Hege Tapio, Gyrid Nordal Kaldestad, Ståle Stenslie and others. 

The FAEN exhibition at Meta.Morf is sponsored by Arts Council Norway and TEKS.