Kafé Kloster

Café Cloister, eller Kafé Kloster på norsk, var tittelen på min separatutstilling ved Hordaland Kunstnersenter i Bergen. Kunstnersenteret ligger ved Klosteret, dvs. der Munkeliv kloster lå i middelalderen. Jeg fylte krypten i Kunstnersenteret med mitt prosjekt. Der lagde jeg et nytt rom i rommet. De “nye veggene” ble laget av fiberduk som jeg limte fast på sauegjerdenetting med tapetklister. Disse “veggene” ble deretter stiftet fast på hylleknekter fra Ikea. Ivar hylleknekter holder konstruksjonen stående, og aluminiumsstenger holder “taket” oppe. Prosjektet ga meg store utfordringer på mange måter, både på det praktisk, teknisk og konseptuelle plan. Magnhild, en venninne, tok seg fri fra jobben en hel uke for å hjelpe meg med monteringen i Bergen. Vi kom akkurat i mål til åpningen…




I arbeid, år 2003.

 



























Koppene står i små hauger av salt.





  

De tynne porselensflakene langs veggen lyses opp av arbeidslamper som er festet bak veggene.

Teksten som beskriver mitt konsept er skrevet av filosof og kunstkritiker Gry Solbraa.

Café Cloister expresses a paradox that opens up for a new way of thought. What kind of paradox? The two concepts are positioned on opposite extremes on a scale representing a graduation of social interactivity. I think Anne Lise Johnsen wants to confront and challenge this conventional way of understanding the two terms. In this new combination they reciprocally give a new meaning to each other; they are both potential outcomes for one single being – there is an isolating aspect of the café and a social aspect of the cloister. The entire concept of social life is challenged. The cloister directs our thoughts towards another kind of social life – directed more inwards: The social quality we find in the café is recalled in a certain social quality of meditating.

In what way does Johnsen`s “mise en scène” let us think this way? The porcelain cups lined up on the bar that also reminds us of an altar; ask to be raised up by our hands. But the liquid is missing; every act is concentrated on the pure gestural act: Standing in front of the bar-altar, we slowly raise the cups, feel them, look at them, and put them down. This gives me associations to the ancient Japanese Tea Ritual. Here the central thing is not to drink a good cup of the, but to partake in the lingering ceremony that opens up for the Zen Spirit of the world.

In Café Cloister we stand in front of the bar-altar, we are being enclosed by the thin porcelain tiles and we raise the porcelain cups. It is a pure gestural being with all our senses. We do not get anything to drink; but we feel the ambiguity of this hybrid being of a sacral-profane and urban-rural place that opens up for a new social awareness.