Eva Mathilde Rem Hansen
About
Ph.D. Candidate in Art History, Department of Art and Media Studies. MA in Art History (2008) and BA in culture and social sciences (2006) from the University of Bergen.
Academic interests
- Arte Povera
- Connections between Postwar Italian Art and Scandinavian milieus
- Modern and contemporary art and art theory
Ph.D. project
Entering the Work. Artists' Appearances and Author-ity in Arte Povera, 1965-1972
Italian "Arte Povera" artists are known for their use of unconventional and "poor" materials, such as soil, water, fire, metals, alchohols, Eternit and neon, and for their minimal reworking of these materials, in favour of presenting them "raw". The critical literature's overall focus on materials underpins the renewed interest in Arte Povera today: The artists' willingness to let materials interact with each other, and thereby to let the works develop in ways the artists themselves cannot forsee, confirms ideals upheld by a contemporary art scene influenced by posthumanist thinking, claiming the subject's withdrawal and the autonomy/agency of matter.
A characteristic aspect of Arte Povera that has been overseen due to the biased focus on the works' materials, is the artists' extensive experimentation with self-(re)presentation. The artists make appearances in numerous self-portraits, performative works, sculptural forms and spatial compositions, either as motifs, as physical presences, as indexical traces, or as the reference points that hold the works' components together. My project attemtps to map the phenomenon "Arte Povera artists' appearances", presenting the main types.
Immediately, the many examples of artists' appearances in Arte Povera seem to depart from the ideal of the subject's withdrawal with respect to materials, which is a central premise for the claim of Arte Povera's relevance to the contemporary art scene. A key question when I analyse the various works is thus what the artist's presence singals regarding his role and position relative to the work and its materials/materiality.
To provide a guidline for my discussion, I turn to Arte Povera's contemporaneity and the field of theory often referred to as "the death of the author" discourse. In Roland Barthes, Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida's texts from around 1970 does not primarily problematise the author/artist's presence in the work, but rather the spatio-temporal position he is traditionally ascribed: the producer becomes an "author-ity" by virtue of his position prior to and behind the work itself. Rahter than demanding that the author/artist withdraws from the work, Barthes, Foucault and Derrida thus implies that an overturning of author-ity happens as the positions prior/original and secondary/derivative are undermined and put into play. Similar indications can be traced in their texts on visual art and images, which problematises the traditional understanding og images/motifs as representations of a prior model, and promotes instead factors and strategies that complicate the categories "represented" and "representation/representative", as well as the hierarchy between them.
I argue that Arte Povera artists' apperarances counteract author-ity in a manner that ressonates with Barthes's, Foucault's and Derrida's problematisation of the representational understanding of the artist-work relation and the model-motif relation. The appearances question the artist-motif's dependence on the artist-model and the motif's ability to represent it, and they demonstrate in different ways how the artist's presence instead depends on the representational sphere and the work's materiality/materials. What we witness is thus a "deposing repositioning" of the artist, who abandons the author-itarian position prior to and behind the work to find alternative positions within and/or grounded in the work itself.
On this basis, it is clear that the Arte Povera artists' insistence on making appearances in their own works is not in conflict with the general focus on materiality in Arte Povera's reception. Neither do the artists' appearances disprove the idea of Arte Povera's relevance to a contemporary art scene with a posthumanist bent. To the contrary, the appearances are in accordance with the ideal of levelling the hierarchy between human subjectivity and matter.
Relevant work experience
- Project leader and editor, Hordaland Art Center’s book series Dublett, 2012-2015
- Editor, Kunst og kultur 2/15, special issue on arte povera
- Member, Norwegian Arts Council Expert comittee of visual arts, 2014-2015
- Lecturer/academic assistant, NTNU 2012
- University lecturer, University of Bergen, 2008-2012
- Freelance writer, critic and curator, 2009-2015
Publications
2024
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem;
Hansen, Eva Rem.
(2024)
A sense for material responses. Eva Sørensen in Albisola 1961-1962.
Academic chapter/article/Conference paper
2015
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem.
(2015)
Med arkivet som terreng.
Introduction
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem.
(2015)
Fra Kunstnernes Hus til kunsthistorien.
Kunst og Kultur
Article in business/trade/industry journal
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem;
Karlsen, Anne Szefer.
(2015)
Dublett – Elsebeth Jørgensen.
Hordaland kunstsenter
Hordaland kunstsenter
Non-fiction book
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem.
(2015)
Siste hånd på verket. Giuseppe Penones forhandlinger med omgivelsene.
Kunst og Kultur
Academic article
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem.
(2015)
Tilfeldighetens arkitektur.
Chapter
2014
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem.
(2014)
Å regissere skjebnen.
Introduction
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem;
Karlsen, Anne Szefer.
(2014)
Dublett – Pedro Gómez-Egaña.
Hordaland kunstsenter
Hordaland kunstsenter
Non-fiction book
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem.
(2014)
Vitenskap som transplantat.
Introduction
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem;
Karlsen, Anne Szefer;
Willassen, Maria Lyngstad.
(2014)
Dublett - Toril Johannessen.
Hordaland kunstsenter
Hordaland kunstsenter
Non-fiction book
2013
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem.
(2013)
Back to basics.
Chapter
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem;
Willassen, Maria Lyngstad.
(2013)
Simultankapasiteter.
Introduction
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem.
(2013)
Stipendiaten er ingen øy.
Kunstkritikk.no
Book review
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem.
(2013)
Konsensus i kvartetten.
Kunstkritikk.no
Book review
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem.
(2013)
Queerkarneval.
Kunstkritikk.no
Book review
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem.
(2013)
Riktig retning for Kunsthall Trondheim.
Kunstkritikk.no
Article in business/trade/industry journal
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem.
(2013)
Folk til kunsten! En samtale om Bergen Kunsthalls formidlingsaktivitet.
Chapter
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem.
(2013)
Å sikte mot stjernene.
Kunstkritikk.no
Book review
2012
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem.
(2012)
Berettiget retrospektiv.
Kunstkritikk.no
Book review
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem.
(2012)
Spiraleffekten.
Kunstkritikk.no
Book review
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem.
(2012)
Speil, speil….
Chapter
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem.
(2012)
Studentkollektivet.
Kunstkritikk.no
Book review
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem.
(2012)
Aspekter ved nomadelivet.
Billedkunst (Oslo)
Book review
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem.
(2012)
Eksistensiell teknologi.
Kunstkritikk.no
Book review
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem.
(2012)
Kunstens politikk.
Kunstkritikk.no
Book review
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem.
(2012)
Aksjon og avbildning.
ArtSceneTrondheim
Book review
2011
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem.
(2011)
Sound of Science.
Masterbloggen
Popular scientific article
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem.
(2011)
Å fylle hvite hull.
Chapter
2010
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem.
(2010)
Synlig tilstedeværelse.
Chapter
2009
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem.
(2009)
Overflate med dybdeillusjoner.
Kunstkritikk.no
Book review
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem.
(2009)
Komponerte relasjoner.
Kunstkritikk.no
Book review
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem.
(2009)
Aldri så galt at det ikke er godt for noe.
Chapter
2008
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem.
(2008)
Kontrastfylte kunstforståelser Objektorienterte og begrepsbaserte holdninger til kunsten.
Universitetet i Bergen
Universitetet i Bergen
Masters thesis
Journal publications
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem.
(2015)
Fra Kunstnernes Hus til kunsthistorien.
Kunst og Kultur
Article in business/trade/industry journal
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem.
(2015)
Siste hånd på verket. Giuseppe Penones forhandlinger med omgivelsene.
Kunst og Kultur
Academic article
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem.
(2013)
Stipendiaten er ingen øy.
Kunstkritikk.no
Book review
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem.
(2013)
Konsensus i kvartetten.
Kunstkritikk.no
Book review
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem.
(2013)
Queerkarneval.
Kunstkritikk.no
Book review
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem.
(2013)
Riktig retning for Kunsthall Trondheim.
Kunstkritikk.no
Article in business/trade/industry journal
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem.
(2013)
Å sikte mot stjernene.
Kunstkritikk.no
Book review
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem.
(2012)
Berettiget retrospektiv.
Kunstkritikk.no
Book review
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem.
(2012)
Spiraleffekten.
Kunstkritikk.no
Book review
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem.
(2012)
Studentkollektivet.
Kunstkritikk.no
Book review
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem.
(2012)
Aspekter ved nomadelivet.
Billedkunst (Oslo)
Book review
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem.
(2012)
Eksistensiell teknologi.
Kunstkritikk.no
Book review
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem.
(2012)
Kunstens politikk.
Kunstkritikk.no
Book review
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem.
(2012)
Aksjon og avbildning.
ArtSceneTrondheim
Book review
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem.
(2011)
Sound of Science.
Masterbloggen
Popular scientific article
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem.
(2009)
Overflate med dybdeillusjoner.
Kunstkritikk.no
Book review
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem.
(2009)
Komponerte relasjoner.
Kunstkritikk.no
Book review
Books
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem;
Karlsen, Anne Szefer.
(2015)
Dublett – Elsebeth Jørgensen.
Hordaland kunstsenter
Hordaland kunstsenter
Non-fiction book
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem;
Karlsen, Anne Szefer.
(2014)
Dublett – Pedro Gómez-Egaña.
Hordaland kunstsenter
Hordaland kunstsenter
Non-fiction book
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem;
Karlsen, Anne Szefer;
Willassen, Maria Lyngstad.
(2014)
Dublett - Toril Johannessen.
Hordaland kunstsenter
Hordaland kunstsenter
Non-fiction book
Part of book/report
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem;
Hansen, Eva Rem.
(2024)
A sense for material responses. Eva Sørensen in Albisola 1961-1962.
Academic chapter/article/Conference paper
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem.
(2015)
Med arkivet som terreng.
Introduction
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem.
(2015)
Tilfeldighetens arkitektur.
Chapter
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem.
(2014)
Å regissere skjebnen.
Introduction
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem.
(2014)
Vitenskap som transplantat.
Introduction
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem.
(2013)
Back to basics.
Chapter
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem;
Willassen, Maria Lyngstad.
(2013)
Simultankapasiteter.
Introduction
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem.
(2013)
Folk til kunsten! En samtale om Bergen Kunsthalls formidlingsaktivitet.
Chapter
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem.
(2012)
Speil, speil….
Chapter
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem.
(2011)
Å fylle hvite hull.
Chapter
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem.
(2010)
Synlig tilstedeværelse.
Chapter
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem.
(2009)
Aldri så galt at det ikke er godt for noe.
Chapter
Report
-
Hansen, Eva Mathilde Rem.
(2008)
Kontrastfylte kunstforståelser Objektorienterte og begrepsbaserte holdninger til kunsten.
Universitetet i Bergen
Universitetet i Bergen
Masters thesis
Outreach
2013
-
InterviewHansen, Eva Mathilde Rem. (2013) Tredoblet antall søkere. Kunstkritikk.no Kunstkritikk.no [Journal] 2013-03-18
2012
-
Interview
-
InterviewHansen, Eva Mathilde Rem. (2012) LevArt – et agency. ArtSceneTrondheim ArtSceneTrondheim [Journal] 2012-06-10
2011
-
Interview
-
InterviewHansen, Eva Mathilde Rem. (2011) Fra masteroppgave til utstilling. Masterbloggen Masterbloggen [Journal] 2011-07-12
2010
-
Interview