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PRE-POSITIONS

Lars Ø Ramberg

September 22 – October 15, 2022

Press Release

Galleri Brandstrup is delighted to announce our first solo presentation with Lars Ø Ramberg titled PRE-POSITIONS. The exhibition opens on 22 September 2022, at 6 PM.

The exhibition presents a selection of his large scale projects developed and created for public space, crystallized as clear concepts and strong visuality — materialized but not yet realized. They are pre-positioned. Materialized in mouth blown church glass, massive bronze, pure gold, colorful neon tubes, each exhibited objects represent building blocks of Rambergs larger concepts


Lars Ø Ramberg lives and works in Berlin and Oslo. Since the 90s, he has created art projects that explore the identity of specific places, based on thorough research. He is known for controversial art projects in public space. Rambergs interventions represents subjective and critical voice in public space, as they critically deal with concepts of doubt, hope, trust, memory, nation, future.


In PRE-POSITIONS the public is invited to experience Rambergs art projects while they are still in process, before they are scaled up and placed on the Specific Site they are intended for; in the mountains of Geiranger, inside the vault of Norges Bank, above the North Sea, on a roof top in Kristiansand and as landmark in Bjørvika.


Viewers may have heard of these projects in the media, but never had a chance to experience them- until now. The exhibited objects are contextually relating to specific spaces as prepositions in public space; they are either in, under, on, at, above, or between realities.

Presented in the exhibition is a full scale puzzle for the “Landmarke Lohavn” is planned for the air towers in Bjørvika, Oslo. The towers which are located where the Black Plague first came to Norway in 1348, will be transformed into a light sculpture consisting of thousands of hand-blown church glasses illustrating the exact genetic RNA code of the Black Death.

The section on display at Galleri Brandstrup is created on a scale of 1:1 and has been given the title “Key to the Code”, referring to a dual meaning of the work key: a physical key and a musical note. In the same way as a musical key, RNA codes "notes" in a long series that together make up the total definition of life. When Covid rolled over us globally, the project gained renewed relevance and became the world's first memorial to us also surviving this pandemic.

"Key to the Code" shows 16 sequences within the exact genetic code of the Black Death bacteria materialized in coloured mouth -blown traditional church glasses with a guaranteed colour resistance of 450 years in strong sunlight. The link between the DNA code of Yersinia Pestis and the sacral church glasses is a way of connecting past and future. Genetic research on the Black Death has led to modern so-called mRNA vaccines that were used to stop the global pandemic Covid 19. Knowledge of history is therefore the key to future challenges.

Each pre-positioned project has a long and complex story and are created through extensive site-specific research. Ramberg has therefore created a brochure for each project, which will be available digitally through a QR code placed next to each artwork.