Growth

Eirik Falckner “Growth” 

Eirik Falckner is an artist both enigmatic and famous as the underground champion of the Bergen art celeb. His new work for MLAG titled VEKST takes the division between fine art (autonomous, critical, conceptual) and craft (functional, decorative, manual) through new paces and revives the debate in Norway concerning how crafts are denigrated in favour of so-called fine art practices.
Falckner’s near cult status as one of Bergen’s favourite street-art stylists has brought much attention to Bergen as a place for innovative public art displays. On one hand, it seems outrageous for the flamboyant artist to turn towards the more homely form of ceramics, but this exhibition for MLAG puts focus on the dialectic of both public vs. private and decorative vs. conceptual. Some of the echoes of this debate relate to how MLAG itself views the garden as a kind of ‘other’ circumventing binaries between decorative and/or functiona, and public vs. private.
Falckner’s new exhibition titled, “Growth”, compliments MLAG’s 2021 curatorial focus on plant ontologies and the pioneering work of landscape architect Cornelia Hahn Oberlander. We are happy to have Falckner’s work and installation processes draw out historical nuances in architectural and artistic practices, fine art vs. craft and green space as decorative or functional.Falckner’s exhibition will take over both the courtyard garden and our en plein air ‘white cube’ for a two-week exhibition drawing associations between the garden environment and handcraft associated with pottery. Monolith sculptures will populate the garden. Ceramic sculptures act as vertical garden plant holders bringing new life to the centre of the city.
Exhibition times
Thursday 10.06.21 18:00 – 21:00
Saturday 12 – 5 pm
Sunday 12 -5 pm
Monday 14th – Sunday 20th By appointment

Curated by Michael Laundry