Galleri F 15 presents ‘Linda Lamignan: If you go to the river’
Moss, Norway, 26 October 2024 – Galleri F 15 is pleased to present If you go to the river, a
solo exhibition of work by Linda Lamignan (b 1988), opening on 26 October and running
until 23 February 2025. Curated by Maria C. Havstam, the exhibition features six major
works by the artist, a number of which are presented in Norway for the very first time.
Unfolding over the different floors of a 19th-century manor house, and surrounded by an
historic, Norwegian country estate, where Galleri F 15 is located, the exhibition explores the
experience of floating between different worlds.
Lise Pennington, Director of Galleri F 15: “We are delighted to present If you go to the
river, a remarkable exhibition by Linda Lamignan. Their innovative work, rooted in deep
cultural and ecological connections, aligns with Galleri F 15’s mission to promote art that
inspires critical reflection. Lamignan’s ability to weave complex narratives between West
Africa and Norway through their unique practice offers our visitors a transformative
experience, engaging with environmental and diasporic themes in powerful new ways.”
Raised in the oil region of Stavanger, Norway, and Port-Gentil, which is the epicentre of
Gabon’s petroleum industry and with roots in Nigeria, Lamignan’s work intertwines oil
extraction, oral histories and language in a narrative where an animistic belief system
plays a key role. Through the use of video, painting, sound and performance, their practice
explores the relationship between ancestry, living landscapes and the long history of oil
extraction in Norway and beyond.
Lamignan works with materials connected to the histories and cultural relations between
West Africa and Scandinavia, addressing the living landscapes they and their ancestors
belong to – not as a resource for economic profit, but as an extension of our own bodies,
where the passage of time unfolds and sources of wisdom, memory and spirit are stored.
Artist Linda Lamignan: “Working with the team at Galleri F 15 has been a wonderful
experience. I have felt seen and supported in so many ways and it has given me the
opportunity to expand my work in ways I might not have on my own. I am excited to see so
many of my pieces gathered together for the first time and to share them with the public.”
Exploiting the elements and symbols found in these living landscapes, they often use
materials and symbols with the darkest and most brutal history, softening them through
shapes that allow viewers to critically engage, and rethink their meanings anew. In
Lamignan’s hands, petroleum wax becomes the ideal material for shaping calabashes,
bottle-shaped gourds used in the Global South as vessels for the preparation of yerba mate,
or as musical instruments for rituals and collective performances. While standing as physical
symbols of their practical function as containers, their petroleum-waxed calabashes are
presented so as to open themselves to the visitors and to receive accounts of their lived
lives and intimate memories.
In one of Lamignan’s more recent works, DIRIMOR, the artist investigates the different
perceptions an animal such as the crocodile may inspire. Considered as a cruel predator
everywhere in the West, the crocodile is perceived as a sacred protector in Gbaramatu, the
community of Lamignan’s grandfather in the Delta State in Nigeria. After travelling by boat
along the Forcados River to visit the Gbaramatu community, Lamignan reflects on the
crocodile as an environmental guardian of their Indigenous landscape, focusing on how
the removal of the ‘crude oil’ (biological remains of ancient crocodiles) from the region
actually affects both the living landscape and the relations among Lamignan’s ancestors, the
animals themselves and us.
Offering visitors the opportunity to establish new connections and meanings between the
histories and values of two distant, yet deeply connected places, such as the Delta State in
Nigeria and the islands of Boknafjord in Norway, where Lamignan’s family root trace, If you
go to river highlights Galleri F 15’s mission as one of Norway’s oldest and most
prestigious exhibition venues for Norwegian and Nordic contemporary art and
experimental practices. The exhibition also exemplifies the curatorial approach of Lise
Pennington, the recently appointed director of Galleri F 15, whose aim is to increase
awareness of Nordic artistic practices while building connections with international
audiences.
The exhibition is supported by Arts Council Norway. On 26 October 2024 at 2 pm, the mayor of Moss, Simen Nord, will officially open the doors
to the exhibition. The opening features a sound performance by Nova Varnrable and a DJ
set by David “DJ Afrocomb” Lamignan.
MEDIA ENQUIRIES
International
Amanda Kelly, Pickles PR, amanda@picklespr.com, +34 685 875 996
Norway
Ann Kristin Traaen, Galleri F 15, akt@gallerif15.no, +47 938 19 216
NOTES TO EDITORS
Listings information
‘Linda Lamignan: If you go to the river’
26 October 2024 – 23 February 2025
Galleri F 15, Albyalléen 60, 1519 Moss, Norway
Web: gallerif15.no
Email: kontakt@gallerif15.no
Tel: +47 69 27 10 33
Instagram: @gallerif15_og_momentum
Facebook: @Galleri F 15 & Momentum
About THE ARTIST
Linda Lamignan (born 1988 in Stavanger) is a Norwegian visual and performance artist
currently living and working in Copenhagen. Lamignan holds a BFA from the Norwegian
National Academy of Fine Arts (2013) and an MFA from The Danish Art Academy of Fine
Arts (2019). Lamignan has earned recognition with exhibitions in Copenhagen, Canada and
Norway. In 2023, Lamignan was granted the Norwegian Savings Bank Foundation
scholarship, a recognition of exceptional talent.
About GALLERI F 15
Galleri F 15 was established 1966 and is one of Norway’s oldest and most prestigious
exhibition venues for Norwegian and Nordic contemporary art. Galleri F 15 presents the
MOMENTUM BIENNALE (est. 1998), one of the most long-standing and important arenas for
contemporary art in the Nordics, as well as the exhibition series Tendencies, which has
presented Nordic craft since 1971.
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