Route of Roots (2016-2019)
Interviews
- NEW! -> Interview with Arild H. Eriksen director of NKD Click here (in English)
- NEW! -> Interview with Inger-Reidun Olsen Click here (in English)
- In conversation with Øyvind Rongevær Kvarme Click here (in Norwegian)
- Interview with Lagenda during a residency at TEA Click here (in Spanish)
- Interview with Sunniva H. Stokken during a residency at VKL Click here (in Norwegian)
- Interview with PAO Click here (in English)
- NEW! -> Interview with Inger-Reidun Olsen Click here (in English)
- In conversation with Øyvind Rongevær Kvarme Click here (in Norwegian)
- Interview with Lagenda during a residency at TEA Click here (in Spanish)
- Interview with Sunniva H. Stokken during a residency at VKL Click here (in Norwegian)
- Interview with PAO Click here (in English)
Selected texts
OUR COMMON HUMANITY
A plant wandering around. Roots in the air. A body trying to fit in. Into small boxes. Into bigger circles. Franzisca Siegrist’s performance concept ROUTE OF ROOTS makes me smile a little. Makes me swallow a sudden sob. There is something both so silent and absurd and desperate about this drawing of circles and wandering from box to box, with body parts hanging off the edge. The need for space. For some sort of place. With roots up in the air. She is holding her balance.
I wrote these lines in 2017, in the invitation to Siegrist’s performance and exhibition at CELLARCUBE, an art space I run together with Anne-Lise Zwaig in Asker. I remember everything well. I remember the atmosphere in the audience during the performance, how it altered between laughter, silence and tears. I remember the feeling of being on a journey, where Siegrist created images that triggered associations in different directions. I thought about the millions of people wandering, fleeing, searching for a safe place. I thought about the conformity pressure running through our society, the expectations and norms about how to live, represented by Siegrist’s boxes. It’s not so easy to fit into them. I thought about how art could be some sort of shelter, or some sort of place in itself. When Siegrist draws a house on the wall, brings her boxes, balances her plants, it is as if she creates a temporary home, an imaginary garden, where we can meet each other in our common humanity.
Johanna Zwaig, March 2020
(Original text written in Norwegian for the solo exhibition at CELLARCUBE in 2017. Rewritten in 2020)
I perceive the work of Franzisca Siegrist as relevant for today's dialogues in society and contemporary art. One of the reasons is her intensive artistic research within the connection and the intersections of society and her own all-day life. The value of her work lies in the poetic and absurd discourse she is offering. Her precise view, her sharp analysis and her critical observations creates performances which invites the audience to directly connect with the presented works. Her body connects objects, relates to spaces and different time settings and as such extends the contemporary discourse on Performance Art practice and theory.
BBB Johannes Deimling, 2017
Text by Agnieszka Gratza:
[...]
Dreams and nightmares
The cup embodies refinement and civilization, but for Siegrist it is an object of everyday use: we drink coffee from a cup to keep us awake, just as we drink tea from it to make us fall asleep. The number of cups in 31 Cups, initially strung together with thread, corresponded to the days of the months. In Siegrist’s poetic universe, the cup became a container of dreams, symbolically represented by white feathers and black beans that the artist would shake out of her capacious black leather boots, aiming for the white porcelain cups she had previously lined up. Calling to mind magic rituals, the white feathers that softly fell to the ground stood for dreams, whereas the black beans, which made the porcelain ring as they hit the bottom of the cup, embodied nightmares.
At the start of the performance, the artist walked up to the audience holding in her hands a single white cup on a saucer, which she placed on the ground. Instead of drink, the cup contained thin strips of type-written paper fanning out round its edges. Having scattered some beans and feathers on to it during the performance, the artist brought things to an elegant close by brushing these aside and drinking the contents of the cup in one draught. The final image the spectators were left with was that of the paper strips protruding from the artist’s mouth, not unlike the golden rays sometimes bearing words in early Renaissance Annunciation scenes. One of the strips scattered on the ground read “there weaker than a new-born lamb. In his dreams he” on one side and “the drugged meal in the inn two nights ago and he had” on the other.
[...]
31 Cups. April 2014 // Dimanche Rouge: Focus on Norway, Le Generateur, Paris, FR
Review in Inferno Magazine (french) here
Hvite kopper mot en hvit vegg, der et antall like hvite bøker er hengt opp, sender tankene mot selvutslettelse, eller i hvert fall total anonymitet. Installasjonen er ikke nok. Franzisca Siegrist forteller at de hvitmalte bøkene i all hovedsak er valgt ut med utgangspunkt i sine fysiske kvaliteter. Arrangeringen inviterer ikke til å stå og bla i dem. De er da heller ikke annet enn objekter som kretser rundt Siegrists performance. Det er denne som er utgangspunktet for det repetitive mønsteret av bøker og skjeer på veggene. Hva vi måtte tillegge de fysiske objektene av meningsinnhold eller assosiativ kraft, avhenger av den enkeltes erfaringsbakgrunn. Kunstneren har flere ganger tidligere benyttet bøker i sine performancer. Denne utforskningen fortoner seg nesten som et forsøk på å stille spørsmål ved hva språk er. Et forsøk på å nullstilles. Å se språk og rutine på hvit bakgrunn.
Exhibition text by Gustav Borgersen (norwegian only)
BookWall. Exhibition at Babel Art Space 14.02 - 23.02. 2014. Images on ArtScene Trondheim: here