Momentum 12: Together As To Gather

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Jun 10 – Oct 8, 2023

Momentum 12 / Galleri F15

Thomas Iversen, Byens flash [City-dandruff]

For the biennale, Tenthaus practices a gathering methodology. The intention is to begin from the practices of the artists they invite and to work from there, then coming together to find the common threads of connection. This practice expands throughout the collective’s ecosystem, both locally and internationally, to include artists, designers, editors, newspapers, artist-run galleries, international biennales, and local schools to share a variety of art projects over the course of the biennale. Through this process, MOMENTUM 12: Together as to gather explores what intuitively comes out of gathering people, places and times.

Thomas Iversen, Byens flash [City-dandruff]

Fotobook DUMMIES Day 傻瓜書日, Bread and Butter Bookshop

Dáiddadállu, Tenthaus Máret Ánne Sara, Untitled

The gathering process remains a complex conjunction of time and space and circumstances. It feels like a rollercoaster ride, with unexpected shifts and turns, the speed goes up and it slows down too. Their Monday meetings were at the core of our collective collaboration: sharing spaces, deep and trivial conversations, food and coffee. It was about being together, and understandably so, after the extreme disruption to togetherness due to the COVID-19 pandemic. At some point, the tasks at hand transformed the circumstances and those of curating MOMENTUM 12. In a way, things gained complexity, and resisting the force of entropy took effort.

WET, Wetcation

Alessandro Marchi, Ingenmannsretten

Stephanie Lüning, Collectivity Paintings, no. I & II Momentum Biennale and Island of Foam (version no. XXIII)

Margrethe Pettersen and Line Solberg, Samtaler med det som renner dypt

Andrea Parkins, The Stray II

Thus, for this MOMENTUM edition, they adopted a methodology they call ‘gathering’ and a model of polyphonic co-authorship. A polyphonic framework suggests producing more than one independent melody simultaneously in a single composition. To a great extent, this is how Tenthaus functions; each individual practice both resonates and amplifies itself through collective work. They produce and involve many themes and curatorial ideas at the same time. In this way, they can explore a myriad of concurrences; subjects and artistic forms, each carrying resonance and meaning. This practice of co-authorship expands throughout their collective’s ecosystem, both locally and internationally, to include artists, designers, editors, newspapers, artist-run galleries, international biennale and local schools to share various art projects throughout the biennale. Through this process, Together as to gather explores what intuitively comes from gathering people, places and times. At first, they focused on what goes into the biennale itself. That is, what people would see and experience when they visit Moss over four months. But as they settled into curating, the different notions of gathering began to emerge.

Morag Keil, Untitled

The P.R.I.N.T. Chronicles

The kind of gathering they seek in Together as to gather is not to be confused with the current practice of inclusivity. Inclusion, as it is utilized now, seems to be part of that paradigm of (often imperial) expansion – where an institution seeks to absorb and incorporate what it includes. It’s a model of infinite growth, economic and otherwise, for the dominant culture. This gathering – MOMENTUM 12 – is a momentary assembly. It is, in a way, the togetherness. The thing we seek. It is not the institution or the biennale. It ends as soon as one leaves, even if one carries traces of the experience away. To gather is the verb and together is the subject. We, together, do the gathering. Togetherness doesn’t mean agreement. It means acceptance, trust, and space to try and fail. And failure is, to an improviser, a real treasure.