Black Box teater Masks (BBt Being) is a celebration of Black Box teater, of its 40 years of existence, the ways of being the theatre hosts, has hosted and will host in the future.
Black Box teater Masks (BBt Being) is an exhibition of photos which depict traces of stories mediated by the material environment of Black Box teater. Images of marks that have been created by people working in the building, images that are signs of theater production, images of forgotten and remembered events, images of accidental and intentional actions, images of intimate interactions and collective care.
The exhibition consists of a selection of 40 images deriving from over 2000 close-up photos which were taken inside Black Box teater during the development of Jakob Oredsson’s work Symbiotic Surfaces (Black Box teater Beings). A work which was presented on the facade of the building as part of Oslo Internasjonale Teaterfestival in 2022. These photos form an extensive visual archive of Black Box teater.
In the exhibition each image derives from one photo which is doubled, mirrored, and separated into its lightest and darkest colors. The images are represented in scale 1:1. Oredsson creates images, with two surfaces which mirror each other, or two faces, referencing the ancient form of the comedy and tragedy masks, bound to the history of theater. The mask simultaneously reveals and conceals its carrier, as reality and fiction. One can imagine the mask as the first scenographic object, existing through relation to the face it describes. A mask is one symbiotic object, a meeting between two surfaces, carrying visible and invisible qualities of the being it is both part of and separate from.
Jakob Oredsson is an artist, architect and scenographer, currently Associate Professor at Norwegian Theatre Academy (NTA). After receiving a BA in scenography from NTA, Oredsson studied architecture at The Cooper Union and Pratt Institute in New York, and received an MA in Architecture from The Royal Academy in Copenhagen. Oredsson has created scenography for numerous performances at Black Box teater and has realized works internationally in public, gallery and theater contexts, through a variety of mediums.
The exhibition runs until March.
+ Vernissage in the foyer on 7 March. More information coming soon.