Can’t See the Forest

This year the main exhibition takes you to the forest. The old pulp mill’s halls are filled to capacity with works depicting conifer and deciduous trees, shrubs and other vegetation. Inside this wilderness you can find animals, shape-shifting creatures, mythical beings and traces of diverse human activities. The forest and humanity are closely linked.

We meet solitary artists alone amongst the trees, traditional crafts, folklore and mythological motifs, abandoned log cabins and stave churches where nature and foreboding organic forms have gained the upper hand. For generations, we humans have gathered inspiration for myths, sagas and fairy tales from amongst the forest’s trees, or we have used the forest for hunting and foraging, exercise and contemplation – as a free space, a place of refuge and an escape route. The forest has the ability to bring out the animalistic and wild side of humans, the violence, death anxiety and lack of control.

The forest in Norway is often planned, planted and cultivated. At its best, however, it is a bustling ecosystem where trees, plants, fungus, animals and birds live side-by-side. The forest is the nature we humans have taken control of, shaped and climbed out of. At the same time, it continues to shape us, and it will apparently never stop fascinating and inspiring artists.

Represented in the exhibition are 76 artists, mostly from Norway, with ages spanning 140 years. Works that otherwise are rarely seen in the same space now stand side-by-side – from classic figurative paintings, traditional wool tapestries and woodcarvings to noise music, game aesthetics and an installation about cruising and sex between men.

The exhibition is curated around four sub-themes or perspectives on the forest, one theme for each floor:

1st Floor – Lush Branching
To paint a forest scene is often considered a classic or romantic exercise. In LUSH BRANCHING, we are instead introduced to poetic, expressive, magical and surreal works that sometimes depict people, animals or other life forms, and at other times man-made constructions. There is a long tradition in Norwegian art history of drawing inspiration from the forest. In a forest scene, we see the artist as much as the landscape; we see the artist’s temperament, technique, background and lifeworld.

2nd Floor – Mythical Darkness
The forest offers romanticism, darkness and gothic atmosphere. In MYTHICAL DARKNESS, you encounter sombre yet beautiful forest scenes, Nordic forest-noir, endless conifers rendered in detailed black-and-white photos, occult phenomena, black metal, enigmatic and organic ceramic sculptures, coffins, cupboards and symbols engraved in wood. These are works that in different ways explore dark, romantic and mythic meetings with the forest. You come across solitary artists alone amongst the trees, traditional crafts passed down through generations, folklore and mythological motifs where nature and foreboding organic forms have gained the upper hand.

3rd Floor – Traces of People and Animals
In Vestfossen’s largest exhibition room, TRACES OF PEOPLE AND ANIMALS shows dark, rough-hewn tree trunks, delicate figures carved from wood, a hut resting on tree-trunk legs, a ruin of a log cabin with door openings shaped like arched portals, portraits of woodsmen and other people, animals and shape-shifting creatures who live in the forest. You can smell the timber and the forest floor. Do you hear a waterfall in the background? The forest can harbour any number of life forms; at its best it is a teeming ecosystem where trees, plants, fungi, animals and birds live side by side. But it can also be cultivated and managed as a set of monocultures. We humans have significant power over nature and the imprint we make on it.

The Basement – In the Depths of the Forest
There is something unclear, ambiguous and uncontrolled about the forest. It is a metaphor for the subconscious and animal aspects of humans, also for violence, death anxiety, raw sexuality and an absence of control. IN THE DEPTHS OF THE FOREST presents works such as a psychotic journal written in a Norwegian cabin, a very destructive tree, surreal bodies, ritual dances with reptilian figures and hatted beings, skeletons, angels, gnomes and witches, and a group of apes who have climbed down from the trees to watch a video. In the innermost room you will find sexually aroused satyrs devoid of dressage.

Can’t See the Forest is a wilderness of artworks. Get lost in it!

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Installation photography: Nina Ansten

Participating artists

• Ada Bae Nilsen
• Adin Mušić
• Amin Olve Klungseth
• Amund Gravdal
• Amund Ulvestad / Fin Serck-Hanssen / Harald Lunde Helgesen
• Andreas Lian
• Andreas Skjelde
• Anna Reivilä
• Anne Kampmann
• Anne-Lise Knoff
• Asbjørg Bjørnvold
• Astri Tonoian
• Bella Fasmer
• Bendik Riis
• Bjørn Mortensen
• Bror Ida Lennartsson
• Camilla Edström Ödemark
• Christer Karlstad
• Christian Blandhoel
• Dan Schein
• David Hancock
• Edvard Munch
• Eirik Falckner
• Erling Enger
• Espen Pedersen
• Fin Serck-Hanssen
• Grete Neseblod
• Grunde Isaksætre
• Gustav Wentzel
• Helga Bu
• Herman Haugland Gislerud
• Ida Montgomery Emblemsvåg
• Ingrid Torvund
• Janicke Schønning
• Javier Barrios
• Jennie Bringaker
• Jiska Huizing
• Joachim Cossais
• Johanna Hoffsten
• Jonas Daatland
• Jonas Mailand
• Kaare Ruud
• Kristian Øverland Dahl
• KVAE & BARK
• Leon Lindgren
• Linda Soh Trengereid
• Linn-Mari Staalnacke
• Lisbeth Andreassen Chumak
• Liv Mildrid Gjernes
• Live Skaar Skogesal
• Maja Ja Jansen
• Marcel Alcalá
• Marianne Wiig Storaas
• Mattias Härenstam
• Morten Juvet
• Ole Boger
• Per Berntsen
• Pernille With Madsen
• Pål Mikael Sterk-Hansen
• Roderick Hietbrink
• Sebastian Rusten
• Sigri Welhaven
• Siri Skjerve
• Sofie Berntsen
• Sverre Malling
• Tom Kosmo
• Tommy Høvik
• Tone Bjordam / Anna Asplind
• Trond Einar Solberg Indsetviken
• Ulf Nilsen
• Vanna Bowles
• William Heimdal
• Zama Cebsile Mwandla