MASKS
In 1983, two Norwegian artists Gøran Ohldieck and Kjetil Berge came to Iceland. The purpose of the trip was to set up a large exhibition titled MASKS at the Nordic House in Reykjavík – over 200 photograps and slides bubbling with queer rhetoric and aesthetics.
In fact, not many people saw the exhibition as it only lasted for two days. The artists packed up the exhibition and left the country.
The archives have told us that the management of The Nordic House wanted to censor the exhibition and asked the artists to remove “undesirable” works from the exhibition. The artists did not comply and packed the exhibition and left the country.
Now, 40 years later, it is time to reveal the exhibition’s history, have a conversation about it and the censorship of queer art and artists. The exhibition that was never held will be opened to the public in a new form under the curatorship of Ynda Eldborg on August 10, 2023.
“…Still the queer community is under threat, facing hate and abuse, murder, bashing and terror, which now affects trans and non-binary people most severely. The works of Gøran and Kjetil are in this way still an important contribution to social debate, visual art, queer aesthetics, art history and the documentation of censorship.”
– Dr Ynda Eldborg, curator of the exhibition MASKS: a censored exhibition.
The exhibition will be open 10am – 5pm all days except Mondays until the 30th September.
Welcome!
The exhibition is part of the Reykjavík Pride program 2023 and we are grateful for the collaboration.
