Øystein Wyller Odden

Dates: 06.09.24 – 13.10.24
Location: Atelier Nord, Olaf Ryes plass 2 (entrance from Sofienberggata)

Please join us for the exhibition opening on Thursday, 05.09.24 at 19.00.

Øystein Wyller Odden’s exhibition Hauge Church takes the history of Olaf Ryes plass 2, the building that today houses Atelier Nord and several artist studios, as its point of departure. In the early 1900s, the building was an important religious gathering place for workers in Grünerløkka, first as a parish hall and later as a church for the Hauge congregation.

In 1917, what is now Atelier Nord’s gallery space was dedicated as a church. The room was eventually adorned with an altarpiece depicting the Resurrection of Christ, painted by the artist Paul Widerøe in 1921, and a large church organ for its time, built by Olsen & Jørgensen in 1924. The church was closed in 1938, and the furnishings were dispersed throughout Oslo.

In the exhibition, Wyller Odden has created a site-specific installation that intertwines the building’s religious past with its secular present. It includes an experimental reconstruction of the organ that once belonged to the church. Organ pipes from the same period and organ builder are placed on pedestals found in Atelier Nord’s storage. To enable sound creation, Wyller Odden has built a wind system which is incorporated into the pedestals.

The organ pipes play a large chord based on Wyller Odden’s analysis of a recording of the silence in the space at night. The eleven most dominant frequencies in the recording have each been assigned a corresponding organ pipe. An accompanying video work explores the room’s architecture and technology, as well as the altarpiece that once stood in the church. The latter has long been stored in the basement of a crematorium in Oslo.

Øystein Wyller Odden (b. 1983, Notodden) was educated at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts and has had solo exhibitions at, among others, Fotogalleriet (2011), Nordnorsk Kunstnersenter (2016), Kunstnerforbundet (2018), and Trøndelag Centre for Contemporary Art (2023). He has participated in group exhibitions at the Oslo Biennial, Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Leopold-Hoesch-Museum, and Tegnerforbundet.

Hauge Church is part of the main program of the Ultima Festival and is produced by Atelier Nord. The exhibition is made with support from the Arts Council Norway, the Regional Project Funds of the Art Centers in Norway, and the Fund for Sound and Image.

A publication in the Atelier Nord Files can be picked up for free in the gallery, and features an essay on Hauge Church by literary critic Live Lundh.