Fredag 25 august kl. 20:00 åpner Eleni Ieremia utstillingen IT IS NOT GOOD TO HAVE TOO LITTLE TO DO i Nonneseter klosterkapell i samarbeid med Fortidsminneforeningen.
Gratis inngang
Døren åpner 20:00

Program:
20:45 Reading performance by Karina Sletten
21:30 Reading by Carol Stampone

Utstillingsperioden er 25.8 - 31.8.2023
Åpningstider: Fredag 20:00 -
Lørdag 12.00-16.00
Mandag-Tirsdag 10:00-15:00
Onsdag-Torsdag 10:00-13:00
For a visit outside opening hours call number: +47 413 193 72

IT IS NOT GOOD TO HAVE TOO LITTLE TO DO

In Eleni Ieremia’s film Holy Hotel we meet three people, in three hotel rooms. Each person has a different reason for drifting through these sleepless hotel corridors, checking in and out of work, sleep and rest, like heavy ghosts sleepwalking through the hollow walls.

Eleni Ieremia’s solo exhibition, “It is not good to have too little to do”, inquires into the politics of (in)visible labour, idleness, sleep tourism and exhaustion, through ceramic sculptures and the film Holy Hotel.

The film meanders through the nuances and cycles of work and rest, and the toll taken on our bodies and minds of working under the conditions of Capitalism.

Ieremia also features ceramic sculptures, based loosely on a drawing by Norwegian artist Theodor Kittelsen. These root-like creatures recall the Norwegian proverb, or cautionary phrase: lediggang er roten til alt ondt. In English, it is commonly translated to: ‘idleness is the root of all evil”, and can be compared to the English proverb: ‘The devil makes work for idle hands to do’.

This proverb shapeshifts throughout histories and cultures, making it difficult to track its origins. However, it is possible to say that one of the first printed versions of this proverb is rooted in Christianity, going back to 4th century theology Jerome writing: Do something, so that the Devil may always find you busy.

In this chapel, a now secular space of sanctuary and rest, Eleni Ieremia’s exhibition contemplates long histories of work and rest. If tiredness is inherited, do the same bones carry this proverb warning against idleness? Caught between rest and sleep, between hostile labour conditions and hotel duvets, we find ourselves tense, anxious to be busy and fatigued from business.

“My body is embodied in many bodies before me”

Text by Ruby Eleftheriotis.

Eleni Ieremia is a Greek-Swedish artist based in Bergen. She currently holds a studio at Isotop Fellesatelier. Ieremia works primarily with installation, sculpture, drawing, video and text, with her works taking their points of departure in ideas about architecture, work, materiality and invisibility. A central part of her practice focuses on labour, especially invisible work in our societies, and ways to shed light on our own place within these larger systems of labour.

In exploring the interplay between social structures, materiality and lived experience, her practice is oftentimes based on the social, material orders and untold stories that surrounds her.

Recent work explores glass architecture, material and power dynamics in architectural spaces, with regards to a thinking around access and the infrastructure through which power, information and resources are distributed.

She holds a BA in Art History from Uppsala University, a Masters in Fine Art from the University of Bergen, KMD and a BA in Contemporary Art from Tromsø Art Academy. Her work has been exhibited at places such as Studio K,Kurant Visningsrom, Small Projects, Bergen Kunsthall and more.