MARE incognitum
BY hc Gilje

28.09.24 - 05.01.25

The exhibition Mare Incognitum by HC Gilje is a journey into the unknown sea. Using mechanical light installations, video, and heat-sensitive materials, the Regelbau 411 bunker is transformed into a place of shifting shadows, instability and discovery.

The bunker, seemingly grounded in the landscape, is not truly founded; it floats on unstable ground, a moving expanse that mirrors the ocean’s restless depths. Its autonomy, paradoxically, provides a kind of balance in the face of inevitable shifts in the surrounding terrain. Like the sea it parallels, the bunker floats, decentered, in a space where natural forces and human interventions intersect.

Through six interconnected works, the exhibition delves into the paradox of human intervention in nature. The rotating camera in Barents (mare incognitum) captures a restless sea, its lens fixed toward the North Pole, at a site threatened by oil extraction and climate upheaval. This rotating horizon echoes the exhibition’s central theme: the circular, rhythmic flow of time, in contrast to the linear march of progress.

In the bunker, horizons shift like waves, tides rise and fall as shadows are drawn from the depths, revealing movements where natural forces and technological interventions blur. Here, technology serves not as a tool of domination but as a means to reveal what often remains hidden—layers of time, depth and history.

Mare Incognitum challenges us to navigate the troubled waters of our current ecological reality. In these waters, the bunker floats unmoored, drifting into the uncertain future of an uncharted sea.

HC Gilje (NO) works with the physical structures of space and the ephemeral media of art. In his practice, he explores ways of transforming space through light, projection, and movement. Technology often plays a central role here as a mediator, enabling dialogue and exchange with the surrounding environment. Educated at the Trondheim Academy of Fine Art in 1999, HC Gilje has exhibited internationally for more than 20 years.

Opening: 28 September 2024, 14:00.
Exhibition period: 28 September 2024 - 5 January 2025.
Opening hours: Every day 10-17. Admission is free.

The exhibition Mare Incognitum is curated by Simon Thykjær.

The exhibition is part of Regelbau 411’s exhibition program for 2024 supported by the Danish Art Foundation, the Augustinus Foundation and the Færch Foundation.

HC Gilje has been supported by Office for Contemporary Art Norway.