Withstanding the shatter of origins

Andrea Bakketun in Kunsthaus Essen, November 2009

The installation made by Norwegian artist Andrea Bakketun consists of video fragments, sound and kinetic sculpture. Integrated in the installed work are rubber objects, found objects and moving image, which are being moved by natural forces. The scenery seems to intimate the Wunderkammer as a research station, where extensive research is being held on the hidden nature of life and things.
The central object in the installation is a mould of a room which seems to posess an independent mind, and by the smell emerging from it , the space, and the experience of the viewer contained within it, is filled with a variety of emerging sublime associations. Empty and left alone, the skin of the interior appears like an echo of an already materialized past reality. The fragile walls are reminicent  of human or animal skin fragments, which are roughly stiched together. Already the mere sight evokes both attraction and repulsion.
A video camera captures a climbing plant, showing the plants search for anchor points to cling to, a movement almost imperceptible to the naked eye. The plastic forces of nature are recorded and investigated with an almost scientific precision, and with the simplest experimental arrangements made visible. Everything is transmissible to human existence, which with Andrea Bakketuns impressive installation finds a poetic and ambiguous reflection plane.

Dr. Uwe Schramm

(shortened version translated from German)