I am the House, I said

I am the house, I said takes the history of the former power station Ondrestation P.G.E.M. (now Omstand – Space for Contemporary Art) and its architecture as a starting point to reflect on energy sources, energy distribution and interconnectivity through text, drawings, garments and a performative reading.

Told from the perspective of the former power station, I am the house, I said recounts the arrival of an intricate glass ship on earth. After a period of non-communication, the ship seems to make contact with the house in the form of dreams, tapping its time-honored memory for clues to possible forms of connection.

The images and objects accompanying the central narrative explore the complex entanglement of systems through an almost oversaturated network of fragmented references. Mycorrhizae of fungi, Celtic patterns, knitting cards, circuit boards, architecture, ornaments and organic matter form an opulent flood of interwoven images in search of possible connecting meanings or voices.

Nora Hansen, I Am the House, I said, with contribution by Brieke Drost, Paula Erstmann, Kinke Kooi, Mary Lake, Josefine Reisch, curated by Lisa Alice Klosterkötter

Installation view with works by Nora Hansen, Omstand – Space for Contemporary Art, 2024, Photo: Django van Ardenne

Installation view with works by Nora Hansen and Kinke Kooi, Omstand – Space for Contemporary Art, 2024, Photo: Django van Ardenne

Documentation Performative Walk I am the House, I said, 2024, Omstand – Space for Contemporary Art, Photo: Lisa Klosterkötter

The reading of the text I Am the House, I Said unfolds across various locations within the surrounding neighborhood of Omstand. Written from the perspective of the former power station Ondrestation P.G.E.M. (now Omstand – Space for Contemporary Art), the narrative unfolds around the arrival of an intricate glass ship on Earth. After a period of silence, the ship appears to make contact with the buildings through dreams, which seem to materialize as reliefs on the walls of the former industrial structures. The text animates the voice of the architecture, paying deep, loving respect to the material memory embedded within the buildings.

Text by Nora Hansen with dreams by Brieke Drost, Rosanna Graf, Lisa Klosterkötter, Kinke Kooi and Frederique Pisuisse.

I am the House, I said (Publication), 2024, Digital print and Risography, 29,7 x 42 cm, Graphic Design by Studio Corine van der Wal, Photo: Lisa Klosterkötter

A publication accompanying the exhibition, featuring research material, the central narrative, accompanying texts, and drawings.

Dinner by chef and artist Paula Erstmann in the exhibition, I am the House, I said, 2024, Omstand – Space for Contemporary Art, Photo: Lisa Klosterkötter

Dinner by cook and artist Paula Erstmann embracing visual and conceptual themes of the exhibition, inviting guests to connect with the architecture and works on display on a deep, sensory level. The dinner is staged in the turbine space, luring the guests into the innermost part of the personified house, deep into its body, filled and warmed up in the course of Paula dinner.

https://www.omstand.nl/activiteiten/i-am-the-house-i-said/

https://kubaparis.com/submission/462171