Scars - silent songs
Scars is an interdisciplinary art project originating in Færder upper secondary school, department for training within the Correctional Service. The project involves inmates in Norway, Ireland and Malawi choosing a scar they have on their body, taking a picture of it and describing how they got it.
The conviction about equality and human dignity is the core of the project. The scars stand as watermarks in the skin, as signs of something we have in common: stories about being human and reminders of life lived.
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After inmates in Norway, Ireland and Malawi have selected a scar on their body, taken a picture of it and described how they got it, the scar stories are processed by a team of professional artists within various art forms: installation/spatial art, various music genres, performing arts, photography, short films and texts.
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performance:
scars - silent songs
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Scar. Scars. My history. I. Behind me. Resilience. In front of me. Currency. DNA, Survive. My life, Pain, Barbed wire, love. Pursuit of happiness, Body. Hope. Mind, heart, grief, strength....
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The artist Kin Wessel has made one installation consisting of 50 columns. On each pillar, the scars are rendered as casts, and the scars themselves are filled with powdered rose petals.
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K:13 SCENEKUNST HAS CREATED A PERFORMANCE linked to the show and the musicians Dan Heide and Terje Johannesen have composed a soundscape that fills the entire room and brings the atmosphere from the stories closer to us. In a 30 min. long collage, Jorunn Lullau and Steinar Thorsen convey the stories of 9 selected inmates, and by walking through the exhibition, the focus is on the true and the human in all stories.
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In the exhibition, the public also gets access to the stories linked to each pillar by scanning a QR code. The installation also shows finished works from inmates, unedited by the artist group, and inmates have participated in the design and production of elements for the installation
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ARR is an ongoing project and the exhibition will be set up in selected cities and prisons in Norway and internationally.
The origin of the project is at Færder upper secondary school, department for Training within the Correctional Service, by
Kin Wessel and Linn Mathisen.
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ARR - silent songs:
Regi og manus: Steinar Thorsen
Musikk: Dan Heide
Installasjon: Kin Wessel
Lyd og Lys: Martin Rogstad
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On stage: Steinar Thorsen and Jorunn Lullau
Musicians: Dan Heide and Terje Johannesen
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Foto: Hans Ertzeid Mathisen
Video: Linn Mathisen
Copartner in the project is CDETB Education Service to Prisons, Mountjoy Prison, Ireland.
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Stories of scars from Future in our hands, Malawi, Chichiri Prison are part of the exhibition and performance.
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The project has financial support from FOCUS, Norwegian Council of Culture and HKdir – Erasmus+, Small-scale partnership.
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From Förder upper secondary school the project have some financial support but first of all backup from the department of prison education, OIK
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The project has its own website: https://thearrproject.com/
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Training within the Correctional Service (OIK)