16 and One Night (-9 Exhibitions)
Digital posters and later cut works.
Non-storytelling—just an interrogation of the art institution’s archive.
This project stems from a recurring question that lingers in my mind: Who decides who is an artist?
I encountered this question again while reading Artists' Activity, Work, and Income Conditions (2006), a report by Heian, Løyland, and Mangset, commissioned by the Ministry of Culture and Church Affairs. The report outlines nine criteria: time spent on artistic work, income, public and peer recognition, quality, education, membership in artists’ organizations, expert validation, and self-identification.
But rather than offer clarity, the definition folds in on itself. Take, for instance, “recognition by other artists”—which immediately raises the question: Who are the artists doing the recognizing? The answer, again, depends on being recognized by others defined in the same way. It becomes a closed system, endlessly deferring meaning. Like defining water by saying “water is water,” this definition functions not to explain, but to preserve authority.
This project does not seek to resolve the question of who is an artist—but to keep asking it. To delay hierarchy in favor of meaning.