Marianne Heier
Earth
Earth is a sculptural, organically designed building of brick and clay enclosed within a herb garden. The building will house a council that seeks to address and promote issues of concern for midwives; the council will consist of representatives from the Norwegian Association of Midwives, the midwifery section of the Norwegian Nurses Organisation, and the midwifery education in Norway , as well as clinically practising midwives. The undertakings of the midwives’ council will activate the sculpture/building from the inside and are integral to the project. The proposal’s Norwegian title, Jord, plays on the Norwegian word for midwife, jordmor, literally meaning “earth-mother”.
Earth alludes to the beginning of life as a shared and fundamentally human experience, as a prerequisite for each unique person’s individuality, actions, and participation in the community regardless of – and prior to – any identity marker. Life itself thus becomes the focal point as a concrete alternative to violence.
– Marianne Heier
Marianne Heier
Marianne Heier (b. 1969, Oslo) is a visual artist who trained at the art academies in Milan and Oslo. Her art is often noted for its critical outlook on institutions, while she herself calls her works “activations”. Heier often takes questions related to democracy and the distribution of resources and power as her starting point. Gifts and their inherent power frequently recur in her works, both as a theme and a strategy. Through methods she has culled from activism, theatre, anthropology, and other sources, she displaces entrenched hierarchies and brings repressed perspectives and unexplored possibilities to the fore. The results are presented as performances, texts, installations, objects, photos, videos, or various forms of architectural intervention. Heier lives and works in Oslo.
Marianne Heier’s work has been exhibited at such institutions as Kunstnernes Hus, Bergen Kunsthall, UKS, the National Museum in Oslo, Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, the Stavanger Art Museum, the Munch Museum, Trondheim Kunstmuseum, Kunsthall Trondheim, the Stenersen Museum, the Malmö Art Museum, Heirloom CAA, CAPC Bourdeux, Bomuldfabriken, Sandefjord Kunstforening, SKMU, Kunsthall Oslo, and Overgaden. She has produced public artworks for KORO, the Norwegian Scenic Routes project, and Radar. In 2012 she was a featured artist at the Bergen International Festival, and in 2013 she received the Lorck Schive Kunstpris award in Trondheim.