Home – less – care is exhibited at Terceira Margem June 22-30 2024 at Casa do Campo Pequeno in Porto, Portugal.
No home, no safety. Sleeping without protection. Falling into an unconscious sleep, unprotected. Running around trying to find a place to sleep and food to eat. Trying to find warmth within the sleeping bag throughout the cold night. A home of violence is also unsafe. Children without power wait until various battles pass by. The body is a home. What happens when the body becomes unsafe due to the presence of memories that have the potential to attack from within? Nobody is at home in the body.
The Home – less – care project aims to draw attention to the living conditions of the homeless and the urge to help improve the situation but being powerless to do so. Realizing that the most efficient help would be to help the homeless gain a sense of self to be able to help themselves. Ending up in a blind alley, realizing a lack of resources for the homeless to change their conditions and a lack of resources for those who would like to provide such help. When all else is missing, care and creativity may be available as a step forward.
The Home – less – care project consists of objects that belong to a home. A bed, chair, and curtains, which include textile paintings. The work is presented in a house that once was a home but presently is not. The curtains bend down to the floor, referring to how homeless individuals occasionally put their various blankets by the house walls. The chair is a place for resting. The bed has an infrared sleeping bag, and at certain times the spectators are invited to cover up in the warm bag to relax and sleep. Those artifacts refer to care, creativity, and aesthetics, which could facilitate a step forward. Through those means, the street may become a home between houses.
The exhibition brings together works by the following artists: Cristiana Macedo / Diego Xavier / Eduardo Brito / Felipe Argiles / Flor de Ceres Rabaçal / Lina de Albuquerque / Manuel Santos / Rodrigo Queirós / Tatiana Móes / Tobias Gaede / Unnur Óttarsdóttir.
The body is a home, but often it is foreign to the inhabitant. It has a back, front, upper and lower parts, with the surroundings all around. Clothes are most often next to the body. Trauma and stress tend to tear the body apart and make it alien, which can result in a deaf tongue, among other things. The different parts have their opposites: they can be warm and cold, close and distant, blue and red. Care and reflection keep fragments together – they are the part of the glue for assembling broken parts. To Wear a Care is a participatory textile work for surrounding the broken body so that it can become more integrated and whole again.
To Wear a Care was exhibited in the exhibition Língua Surda which was held February 21-29, 2024 at the FBAUP Museum in Porto, Portugal. The exibition bought together works by the following artists: Cristiana Macedo / Diego Xavier / Eduardo Brito / Felipe Argiles / Flor de Ceres Rabaçal / Lina de Albuquerque / Manuel Santos / Rodrigo Queirós / Tatiana Móes / Tobias Gaede / Unnur Óttarsdóttir.
Home – less – care is exhibited at Terceira Margem June 22-30 2024 at Casa do Campo Pequeno in Porto, Portugal.
No home, no safety. Sleeping without protection. Falling into an unconscious sleep, unprotected. Running around trying to find a place to sleep and food to eat. Trying to find warmth within the sleeping bag throughout the cold night. A home of violence is also unsafe. Children without power wait until various battles pass by. The body is a home. What happens when the body becomes unsafe due to the presence of memories that have the potential to attack from within? Nobody is at home in the body.
The Home – less – care project aims to draw attention to the living conditions of the homeless and the urge to help improve the situation but being powerless to do so. Realizing that the most efficient help would be to help the homeless gain a sense of self to be able to help themselves. Ending up in a blind alley, realizing a lack of resources for the homeless to change their conditions and a lack of resources for those who would like to provide such help. When all else is missing, care and creativity may be available as a step forward.
The Home – less – care project consists of objects that belong to a home. A bed, chair, and curtains, which include textile paintings. The work is presented in a house that once was a home but presently is not. The curtains bend down to the floor, referring to how homeless individuals occasionally put their various blankets by the house walls. The chair is a place for resting. The bed has an infrared sleeping bag, and at certain times the spectators are invited to cover up in the warm bag to relax and sleep. Those artifacts refer to care, creativity, and aesthetics, which could facilitate a step forward. Through those means, the street may become a home between houses.
The exhibition brings together works by the following artists: Cristiana Macedo / Diego Xavier / Eduardo Brito / Felipe Argiles / Flor de Ceres Rabaçal / Lina de Albuquerque / Manuel Santos / Rodrigo Queirós / Tatiana Móes / Tobias Gaede / Unnur Óttarsdóttir.
Curator: Professor Miguel Leal
To Wear a Care
The body is a home, but often it is foreign to the inhabitant. It has a back, front, upper and lower parts, with the surroundings all around. Clothes are most often next to the body. Trauma and stress tend to tear the body apart and make it alien, which can result in a deaf tongue, among other things. The different parts have their opposites: they can be warm and cold, close and distant, blue and red. Care and reflection keep fragments together – they are the part of the glue for assembling broken parts. To Wear a Care is a participatory textile work for surrounding the broken body so that it can become more integrated and whole again.
To Wear a Care was exhibited in the exhibition Língua Surda which was held February 21-29, 2024 at the FBAUP Museum in Porto, Portugal. The exibition bought together works by the following artists: Cristiana Macedo / Diego Xavier / Eduardo Brito / Felipe Argiles / Flor de Ceres Rabaçal / Lina de Albuquerque / Manuel Santos / Rodrigo Queirós / Tatiana Móes / Tobias Gaede / Unnur Óttarsdóttir.
Curator: Professor Miguel Leal
Artist talk Unnur Óttarsdóttir – INTERTWINE
Galerí Grótta, Eidistorgi, Seltjarnarnes, Saturday, September 2 at 13
At the artists’ talk, Unnur Óttarsdóttir talks about the paintings, photographs and sound works at the exhibition “Intertwine”. She reviews the development and creation of the artworks and the ideas behind them. She also discusses drawings made by other artists in book art which intertwine theirs and Unnur´s creativity.
Intertwine
Unnur Óttarsdóttir opens the art exhibition Intertwine on Thursday, August 24 at 17 in Gallerí Gróttu Eidistorgi, Seltjarnarnesi. The exhibition runs until September 16. The Gallery is open during office hours from 10:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. weekdays except Fridays from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Saturdays from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Sisters II. Unnur Óttarsdóttir, 2023. Photographs: center Óttar Yngvason, sides Guðrún Dóra Hardardóttir
Currents flow, meet and separate. Roads approach, meet and diverge. Relationships combine internal and external landscapes. Threads intertwine and build a coherent web. Connections from one time to another intertwine existence. Long-term relationships weave life together. The overlap of opposites creates a new dimension. An interdisciplinary approach creates new worlds. The interweaving of opposite sides of an individual contributes to a solid personality.
In hypnosis, the pendulum swings right and left and the eyes follow. In EMDR therapy, the eyes follow the psychologist’s finger that moves left and right. In art therapy, words and pictures are connected. In educational art therapy, cognition and emotion are connected.
At the exhibition Samtvinna, connections are made in various ways. Between right and left hands, between time intervals, between people, between generations, and so on. Paintings and photographs are connected. In the exhibition, Unnur works with relationships with people she has been connected to at various periods. That way, she weaves a web of generations. Drawings made by following artists in Unnar’s book art space will also be on display.
The audience will be invited to participate in a study that takes about 30 minutes and includes a conversation, a drawing exercise, and filling in questionnaires. Those interested can email Unnur at unnur@unnurottarsdottir.com for more information.
