Main Building

Excerpt from curator Göran Greens text for the catalogue:

“Oh my God… Oh my God!…” the woman exclaimed as she saw the huge Boeing plane crash into the World Trade Center on 9/11. Faced with the terrible and nightmare-like events she was witnessing, the woman invoked God.

I don’t know wheather or not she actually believed in him. The hijackers, on the other hand, were deeply religious Muslims. “God is great!” were probably their final words. God is invoked by both sides, and confronted with the incomprehensible many people turn to him.

OH MY GOD! is now also the title of an international art exhibition at Vestfossen. The exhibition aims to inspire people to reflect on and ask questions about issues such as faith and doubt, freedom and responsibility, tradition and change. The idea for the exhibition and its title were conceived by Fred Hauge and Henrik J. Sæther, two art enthusiasts who right since the outset have produced catalogues, posters and all sorts of marketing material for Kunstlaboratoriet – in the past two years with the help of Renée Halvorsen. The concept behind the exhibition was to ask a number of people from the Nordic art world, including collectors, artists, critics, art historians, curators and institutions, to select a work of art that had a link to the title OH MY GOD! (11pp)

The people invited, and the artist they chose: Eija Aarnio (Markus Kåhre), Sofie Berntsen (own work), Ernst Billgren (Bruno Knutman), Christian Bjelland (Leonard Rickhard , Per Inge Bjørlo, Bjarne Melgaard), Sverre Koren Bjertnæs (own work), Maj-Britt Boa (own work), Per Brunskog (Tarmo Paunu), Göran Christenson (Annika Larsson), Lars Elton (Josephine Lyche), Harald Flor (Torsten Renqvist), Göran Green (Henry Wuorila-Stenberg, Steingrímur Eyfjörd, Mette Hansen), Nicolas Hansson (Peter Johansson), Jack Helgesen (Vik Muniz, Marcus Draper), Karin Hellandsjø ( Wladyslaw Hasior), Rolf A. Hoff (Andres Serrano, Sigalit Landau), Svein Olav Hoff (Frans Widerberg), Magnus Jensner (Marcus Larsson), Erling Kagge (Kirsten Pieroth), Thomas Kvam (eget verk), Pontus Kyander (Per Wizén, Truls Melin), Conny C-A Malmqvist (Jes Brinch, Lars Vilks), Frank Mosvold (Steven Shearer), Frode Gundorf Nilsen (eget verk), Michael O’Donnel (Henrik Plenge Jacobsen and own work), Sten Are Sandbeck (own work), Lotte Sandberg (Harald Sohlberg), Björn Springfeldt (Ulf Rahmberg), Vibeke Tandberg (eget verk), Åsmund Torkilsen (Cindy Sherman, Henrik Sørensen), Jukka Vikberg (Kaarina Kaikkonen), Morten Viskum (Kristian Øverland Dahl), Barbro Werkmäster (Gunilla Paetau Sjöberg), Daniel Werkmäster (Olov Tällström).