Manifesta purposely strives to keep its distance from what are often seen as the dominant centres of artistic production, instead seeking fresh and fertile terrain for the mapping of a new cultural topography.
Bjarne Melgaard, NO/AU
Bjarne Melgaard, Artist in search of God within his own limitations (an indoor swimming pool for Yolanda the Jack Smith Pinguin), 1997/98. Photo © Roman Mensing / Manifesta 2.
Installation at C.P.C.A.
Norwegian/Australian artist Bjarne Melgaard’s work for Manifesta 2 consisted of a stage prop for Artist in Search of God and reflected on artistic genius and suffering in an actual individual's biography. It was also a mental reconstruction of the moment when Yolanda, Jack Smith’s Penguin, watches Moses applying fake eyelashes on a dead goat.