In Jannik Abel's artistic practice, themes such as belonging, vulnerability, heritage and impermanence are central. Since the 1990s, the artist has worked with installation, photography, film and performance. In 2016, Abel transitioned to a completely environmentally conscious mode of production that produces no waste. Abel lives and works on the Nesodden peninsula and has largely focused on creating installations in the forest for the past five years. Working solely by hand and using simple tools like saws, knives, and axes, the artist's artistic method is founded on the premises of overconsumption and environmental crisis, while still carving out alternative modes of art-making and ways of building relationships between people and across species.

The exhibition at Kunstnernes Hus will consist of two large installations made of wood, with all materials harvested and processed by hand. One will be a room for contemplation, while the other makes room for touch and dialogue. The latter will create space for the dialogue program Back to the Table, organized in collaboration with playwright and actor Guri Glans, around a long table that is composed of material collected from past installations from several Norwegian art institutions.

In parallel to the exhibition, people around the country will be able to visit Abel’s Watching the Forest Grow Back / Forest Witnesses (2022-), an ongoing project for which the artist builds shelters in the liminal zone between the forest and an area where all trees have been recently razed – parallel spaces from which to contemplate the value of forests and the eighty years it takes for a forest to regenerate.

"Someone has to take a step in a different direction. Art has a responsibility not only to point out the environmental crisis but also to be part of the solution. That’s why I create works from materials that already exist, which I gather almost exclusively from nature. What doesn't become art becomes firewood or soil", says Abel.

Jannik Abel (b. 1973, Oslo) was educated at the San Francisco Art Institute in the 1990s and has had exhibitions at several institutions and public spaces both nationally and internationally. Abel grew up in the art world; the artist's great-great-grandparents opened Norway's first art gallery in 1864, which was run by the family for generations.

The exhibition is supported by the Arts Council of Norway, the Norwegian Artists' Fund, Fritt Ord and the Norwegian Arts Centres. The artist dedicates it to Hassa Abel, for a life in the service of art.