Andreas Olavssønn Rongen

SVERMERE (IGJEN)
Svolvær Kunstforening, 2022. (utvidet) mannsdans. Hand dyed wool, latex, hemp thread, embroidered name tag, spruce, unbreakable plastic roof, electric fan, oil oven, leafs from self grown farmers tobacco (Nicotiana Rustica), cheese wax, bees wax, pigment, dammer resin, found glass bowl, water. — SVERMERE (IGJEN) Svolvær Kunstforening, 2022. (utvidet) mannsdans. Hand dyed wool, latex, hemp thread, embroidered name tag, spruce, unbreakable plastic roof, electric fan, oil oven, leafs from self grown farmers tobacco (Nicotiana Rustica), cheese wax, bees wax, pigment, dammer resin, found glass bowl, water.

Andreas Olavssønn Rongen (b. 1989) lives and works in Oslo. His work deals with situations of presence and exclusion, often expanding on site-specific observations and patterns of movement.

Through his works he usually relies on a multidisciplinary approach, actively seeking to link material production to site-specific contexts through repetitions, rhythms and routines. Situating movement and observation as the guiding principle, he is interested in ideas about (social) mobility, participation and a relational closeness to a place. Filtered through fiction, misunderstandings and speculation these impressions form a thematic backdrop for sculptural investigation.

Works from studio show @ WIELS
2025 Stand-in variasjoner (diskursiv form). (Cotton, glue, tape, vinyl, steel buttons, embroidered name tag, cast emblem (beeswax, cheese wax, dammar resin, pigment, pulverized marmorino), all-weather jacket, found wood, found plastic, common rue/herb-of-grace (Ruta graveolens) grown in studio).

His work could be considered as a defense for a poetic approach towards the world – as an expanded line-of-thought, where materials and intentions interplay in temporary relations bound in time and space outside a market-oriented logic. Working cyclically with the same materials, he introduces them into temporary relationships before dismantling, melting, recycling or reformulating them as components in new constellations and sculptural networks. As a result his work often appears as sculptural eco-systems or archives, open-ended assemblages and stacks upon stacks documenting interventions and gestures.

Refleksiv handling (2020). Cheese wax, beeswax, carnauba wax, dammer resin, pigment, pulverized marmorino, plastic sheet (two mirrored images mounted on innside and outside of window). Photo: Istvan Virag

As a part of his artistic practice he is also part of different collaborative projects and artist-duos exploring the intersections between sculpture, architecture and performative expressions. For Coast Contemporary, he will perform a collaborative project together with artist Miriam Hansen. Together they have been developing a sculptural logic of infusion and absorption, and will perform the finalization of a sculptural work produced for Velferden by infusing it with home grown Virginia tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) in a purpose built smoking chamber. Envisioned as a durational performance as the evening draws to a close, the performance flirts with social situations of respite, such as a smoke break or an after-work. The project emerges from their converging interests in the intersections between sculpture, architecture and performative expressions, and the collaborative effort of caring for plants they’ve cultivated together in their home, on their balcony and in their studio over the years.

Rongen holds a BFA and MFA from Oslo National Academy of the Arts. Currently, he’s finishing a residency at WIELS Contemporary Art Center in Brussels.