What is that smell? Stinging vinegarish kombucha, or the whiff of a fart that timidly tickles your nose?

In these works, Fermelin is interested in the methods of Roman emperor Elagabalus (204-222). She assigned the political top positions to citizens with the biggest penis and was herself a queen and prostitute combined. She is also said to be the inventor of the whoopee cushion.

Throughout the pandemic, Pedersen has cultivated scobies in his studio. Scobies are symbiotic cultures consisting of bacteria and yeast, and can also be dried to be used as leathery textiles. While cultivating, Pedersen found that there are strange connections between his own psyche and the living cultures.

Fanny (FfFFtffFffaaNNNnEeey IiiiiIiIIiiSss PArrrååånanncuueddd ”FUNNYyy” Inn ennGlissjjjj) Fermelin (b. 1994, SE) works with whoopee cushions, (comic)strip(tease) and The Great Death of the Soul, while always on the border between resistance and surrender. She works mainly with sculpture. Fermelin is, together with Lasse Berlok, the leading figure of the arte banale-movement.

Viktor Pedersen (b. 1988, NO) works interdisciplinary with performance, text, video, sound and music. In his artistic practice, he tries to approach non-human intelligence to investigate how humans relate to nature. He works in many different mediums, but common is that he tells narratives. He uses an animistic view where he personifies other organisms, or takes on roles as hybrid beings. These perspectives can be, for example, an alien that comes from another dimension, a fungus that uses him as a medium, or the diversity of bacteria in the body. By trying to approach these perspectives, Pedersen wants to play with the human-centric view dominating the Western sphere of thought, and in the process understand nature´s intrinsic value. For more information, visit www.viktorpedersen.com.

The exhibition series is kindly supported by Oslo Kommune, Kulturrådet and Kunstnernes Hus.