Olof Marsja
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Drawing on knowledge from forefathers and foremothers, duodji (Sámi crafts), mythology, and material traditions, Marsja creates works that move between the ancient and the contemporary, the personal and the collective, the remembered and the forgotten. For his exhibition at Bergen Kunsthall Olof Marsja presents a new constellation of sculptures and figures that inhabit a world where timelines overlap and established categories begin to dissolve.
The cave, a recurring point of reference for Marsja, becomes a threshold between worlds: visible and invisible, present and absent, living and dead. It is a place where boundaries soften and where relationships take precedence over hierarchies. In the exhibition, figures emerge as guides, guardians, dancers, spirits and companions. They inhabit a speculative cosmos in which land, rivers, mountains, language, and ancestors occupy equal positions in an expanded family tree. Marsja’s work approaches the underground as a space where different histories and ways of being can coexist. It is a world shaped by loss and longing, but equally by humour, vitality, and transformation.
Working across wood, glass, metal, textiles, and found materials, Marsja places particular emphasis on the act of making itself. In an age increasingly shaped by digitalisation and dematerialisation, the trace of the hand remains central to his practice and hand-worked surfaces reveal how material can become a carrier of memory, knowledge and relation.
The exhibition builds upon research and inquiries developed through “I din röst bor anden till ett språk” (“In Your Voice Dwells the Spirit of a Language”) at Accelerator in Stockholm, curated by Therese Kellner. In Bergen, these investigations enter into dialogue with themes explored through Bergen Kunsthall’s recent programme, including “Iter Subterraneum” and the live programme Another Sun.
Olof Marsja (b. 1986, Sweden) lives and works in Gothenburg. Recent solo exhibitions include Accelerator, Stockholm; 1646, The Hague; Örebro Konsthall; Dalslands Konstmuseum; and the Sámi Center for Contemporary Art, Karasjok. His work has been presented at institutions including Buffalo AKG Art Museum, New York; Kiasma, Helsinki; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm; and Göteborgs Konsthall.
