{"id":7151,"date":"2026-10-05T19:07:19","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T19:07:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.afmuseet.no\/en\/?post_type=exhibition&p=7151"},"modified":"2026-10-06T10:31:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T10:31:17","slug":"material-shifts","status":"publish","type":"exhibition","link":"https:\/\/www.afmuseet.no\/en\/exhibitions\/material-shifts\/","title":{"rendered":"Material Shifts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Exhibition<\/span>\n\n

Material Shifts<\/h1>\n\n13. Nov. 2026 – 28. Feb. 2027<\/span>\n\n
\"Jean-Luc
Jean-Luc Moul\u00e8ne, M\u00e9duse, Paris 2018. Photo : M3 Studio \/ Thomas Dane Gallery. Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Chantal Crousel, Paris, Thomas Dane Gallery, London-Naples and Galerie Greta Meert, Brussels<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

A major international group exhibition that looks at sculpture as an act of translation. <\/p><\/div>\n\n\n

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Become a member
– and join us for the opening!<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Olga Balema, Katinka Bock, Ludovica Carbotta, Rhea Dillon, Miho Dohi, Vincent Fecteau, Ane Mette Hol, Brad Kronz, Jean-Luc Moul\u00e8ne, Germain Ngoma, Kaare Ruud, Stein R\u00f8nning, Diane Simpson, Dima Srouji, Mungo Thomson <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Traditionally, the notion of sculpture recalls a stable object rendered in a robust material: something frozen in time and space. Still, sculptural practices have always also retained a notion of \u201cmaterial shifts\u201d: from mold to cast, from sketch to three-dimensional form, or from idea to physical realization. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The works on view span conceptually driven pieces, material explorations, space-activating installations, and repurposed objects, mapping a field made vital through translation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Translation is about differentness. A way of coping with, and ameliorating, and yes, denying difference. <\/em>\u2014 Susan Sontag, \u201cOn Being Translated\u201d (1995)<\/h6>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The idea of \u201ctranslation\u201d connects otherwise distinct, singular practices moving between media, materials, languages and ideas: for some, translation becomes an act of transformation\u2014a remaking of one thing into something materially or conceptually different. For others, it is a matter of transition, a more gradual shift from one form or thought into another\u2014an alteration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the word translation is generally understood to be concerned with language, an additional meaning is the rendering of a thing in another medium or form, or adapting it to another system, context, or use. This action\u2014of lifting something from its source and reshaping it\u2014is foundational to sculpture itself; from Greek sculptors carving the likeness of soft skin from hard stone to the readymade recontextualizing everyday objects as art. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The artists in\u202fMaterial Shifts<\/em>\u202f undertake numerous such translations, often through precise and imaginative exchanges between categories\u2014such as moving from two-dimensional to three-dimensional forms, from the fleeting to the permanent, or by giving physical presence to ideas not previously existing in any shape or form.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this way, the works demonstrate how sculpture<\/em>, and the sculptural<\/em>, remain relevant as artistic forms. Without returning to a modernist notion of \u201cpure\u201d medium specificity, the works nevertheless engage with an understanding of sculpture<\/em> that differs from both installation art<\/em> and the object<\/em>\u2014two terms more commonly used in contemporary art.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the introduction of found objects into the realm of art has opened up a complex study of ordinary objects and things through an artistic lens, the works in this exhibition seem to define themselves by being different from<\/em>, or somehow other than<\/em>, everyday objects. However closely they may resemble or refer to things from daily life, they appear as translated<\/em>: held at a distance from their source material. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Curated by Owen Martin and Steinar Sekkingstad<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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