M HKA Ensembles

Book, 21.1 x 13.7 cm, 233 p, language: Norwegian, publisher: Oslo: Tiden Norsk Forlag A/S, ISBN: 8205337683.

Collection: Collection M HKA, Antwerp (Inv. no. B 2025/234).

Literary synopsis In the novel Closer To Love (Nærmere Kjærligheten) fiction, interviews and articles melt together. It is a story about the making of an art piece, and about the urge for authenticity and attention. The story follows the protagonist Susi Dahl, a fine artist interested in arson. On her voyage in making a work of art, she encounters an arsonist who tries to start a new life. In a realistic prose the reason for making art and what might be the hidden agendas, are questioned. The arsonist is seen as a human being that reacts upon the society. Fire and arson are investigated and used as a phenomenon with references to social, psychological and political relations.

Relation of the novel to the artist’s practice

The novel Nærmere kjærligheten (Closer To Love) is about fire and setting fire, examining an artist's art making process. Ulvin has for some years been particularly interested in activism and rebellion, and the phenomenon of fire. She has examined the role of people who set fire to buildings (pyromaniacs) and fire related to rituals, as well as looking at fire as metaphor for psychological processes through installation, performance and text.
In the performance Report From A Suburb, participants from a suburb of Beijing facing the very real threat of demolition, performed a mix between a protest and a ritual burning of a house. The installation Denounce Me Before It's Too Late the audience partake in the confessions of a pyromaniac.

Ulvin’s novels and art practice are two sides of what she both considers her practice as an artist, and a part of a wider art project. The novel relates to her artwork, both as a method of working as an artist, and as a source and part (also physical) for different artworks. The novel develops alongside the making of artworks, and becomes artworks/books on their own premises. The novel works as a source for developing artworks, or vice versa.

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