Marianne Heske: Project Gjerdelöa

The illustrated travel book of an original artist republished after 30 years with a facsimile copy In 1980, on the occasion of the XI Paris Biennale, Marianne Heske undertook the transport of a shepherds hut from Norway to the Centre Pompidou. This wooden hut, traditionally used for storing hay and for shelter, was dismantled on the spot, reassembled in Paris and then put back on its site one year later. Interviewed on the meaning behind this project, the artists reply was significant: I thought the hut would be regarded as a hut in Norway, whereas in Paris it would be seen as a manifestation of conceptual art. Apart from the seemingly naive speculation regarding the change of scene and interpretation of an object outside its original context, the artists attitude reveals a profound analytical capacity. Reality changes with climate, latitude, background and culture; and it is the interaction between realism and fantasy, object and subject which constitutes the law of seeing. The project at the XI Paris Biennale offered a successful combination of video, photographs and artistic archaeology. Marianne Heske had video-taped the hut on the mountains and a series of photographs showed the original surroundings and the condition of the hut. A video camera followed the spectator, showing his bewildered looks on a monitor outside the room. The book she published in 1984 and now republished by Skira - illustrates how that outhouse was taken apart, step by step, how it was transformed into a work of art, and how it was rebuilt in a white room in the Centre Pompidou, where the wooden hut was turned in a dynamic sculpture.