Rune Guneriussen, born in Kongsberg, Norway in 1977, was one of the seven artists included in our Norway Contemporary! exhibition. We invited him to come to Föhr and be inspired by the island.
He had gained first impressions of the region here on opening weekend in early March 2018. Using the electric BMW kindly made available to us by Föhr Tourismus GmbH, he was able to explore the island to decide whether or not to accept our invitation. He accepted.
Upon his return to Vestfossen in Norway he wrote to give us an idea of what he was planning to do during his time: “… the plan would be one lamp installation, and a lot of experimental shots with my new projects, and hopefully final shots as well.”
Rune Guneriussen is an artist who works primarily in the Norwegian landscape, alternating between installation and photography. His spectacular installations take a lot of time to put up, time to wait for the proper light – the blue hour – and time to take everything down again. According to his guiding principle, “Balance is key. The relationship between the modern world and nature is rapidly waning. We are moving further and further away from nature and soon will no longer be part of it.” Rune Guneriussen works at the intersection of installation and photography, above all in nature. For his site-specific pieces he inserts everyday, civilisational objects – usually lamps, sometimes globes or chairs, books or telephones – into forest aisles, rocky slopes and creeks, stretches of coast and trees. The artist then photographs the installation with a high depth of focus from a slightly elevated standpoint using an analogue plate camera, only to subsequently take everything down again.
In a poetically evocative way, Guneriussen unites what naturally does not belong together and yet seemingly effortlessly blends into the dark of the blue hour or the nebulous day light of his Norwegian landscapes.