K n u t  Å s d a m

b. 1968, Trondheim, Norway
Lives and works in New York City

Knut Åsdam Psychasthenia 10 2000 Archival c-type mounted on aluminum, edition of 3 Courtesy of the artist and Klemens Gasser & Tanja Grünert, Inc., New York

Knut Åsdam’s work is concerned with how we as individuals and communities relate to socially and economically predetermined places such as high rise housing or public parks within contemporary urban environments. Navigating the spaces of modernist architecture, Åsdam examines the relationships of subjectivation operating within the political, aesthetic and social dynamics of these sites – often implicating the viewer in these relationships. His work draws parallels between the architectural environment and our sense of self, delving a psychological experience of space. His films, installations and photographs tap areas of tension in our relationship with the city, often touching on the transgressive potential of public spaces. Drawing from the writings of French theorist Michel Foucault, his installations probe notions of heterotopia and of narrative space, while Åsdam describes the series of photographs entitled Psychasthenia 10 (2000) as a study of Roger Caillois’ concept of psychasthenia as a contemporary cultural phenomenon. The condition of psychasthenia – as Caillois described it in 1931, the disturbance in relations between personality and space – is interpreted by Åsdam as the negotiation over the shifting borders not only between personality and environment, but also between mythology and reality. Each image frames an example of the ubiquitous housing projects built across the US and Europe as social or lower income housing after WWII. Made at night using extremely long exposures, these photographs galvanize the fantastical aspects of this architecture against overcast night skies bleached by sodium streetlight. Human habitation is reduced to modulating patterns of light and color in windows – the REM of sleeping giants – at the same time, the physical details of curtains in windows or signs of disrepair on the building façades dramatize the tensions between the social reality of these buildings and architectural conceit.

Knut Åsdam Psychasthenia 10 2000 Archival c-type mounted on aluminum, edition of 3 Courtesy of the artist and Klemens Gasser & Tanja Grünert, Inc., New York

Selected Solo Exhibitions
2001 Kunsthaus Glarus, Switzerland. Museum of Contemporary Art, Oslo, Norway. 2000 ArtNow, Tate Britain, London, UK. Transmission, Glasgow, Scotland. 1999 Nordic Pavilion, 48. Bienale di Venezia, Venice, Italy. Norwegian Pavilion, Melbourne International Biennial, Melbourne, Australia. 1998 Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius, Lithuania.

Knut Åsdam Psychasthenia 10 2000 Archival c-type mounted on aluminum, edition of 3 Courtesy of the artist and Klemens Gasser & Tanja Grünert, Inc., New York

Knut Åsdam Psychasthenia 10 2000 Archival c-type mounted on aluminum, edition of 3 Courtesy of the artist and Klemens Gasser & Tanja Grünert, Inc., New York

Selected Group Exhibitions
2003 Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered, Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zürich, Switzerland. Body Matters, Museum of Contemporary Art, Oslo, Norway. Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul, Turkey. 2002 Frequenzen [Hz] / Frequencies [Hz], Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, Germany. International Short Film Festival, Bilbao, Spain. International Short Film Festival, Oberhausen, Germany. Todos somos pecadores, Museo Rufino Tamayo, Mexico City, Mexico. 2001 Paesi Nordici, interferenze, Palazzo delle Papesse, Centro Arte Contemporanea, Siena, Italy. Treff, Bergen Kunstmuseum, Bergen, Norway. 2000 Norden, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria. Models of Resistance, Overgaden State Center for Contemporary Art, Copenhagen, Denmark. Organizing Freedom, Moderne Museet, Stockholm, Sweden. 1999 Hundstage, Gesellschaft für Aktuelle Kunst, Bremen, Germany. Samfunnsengasjement, Politikk og Hverdag 1970/90, Museum of Contemporary Art, Oslo, Norway. 1998 Nuit Blanche, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France. Nordic Nomads, White Columns, New York, NY.

Knut Åsdam Psychasthenia 10 2000 Archival c-type mounted on aluminum, edition of 3 Courtesy of the artist and Klemens Gasser & Tanja Grünert, Inc., New York

Knut Åsdam Psychasthenia 10 2000 Archival c-type mounted on aluminum, edition of 3 Courtesy of the artist and Klemens Gasser & Tanja Grünert, Inc., New York

Further Reading
Åsdam, Knut, Okwui Okpokwasili, & Onomé Ekeh, Knut Åsdam: Notes Towards a Dissipation of Desire (Museet for Samtidskunst, Oslo, Norway; Kunsthaus Glarus, Glarus, Switzerland, 2001)
Baker, George, “The Space of the Stain,” Grey Room v.1 no.5 (Fall 2001): 5-37
Baker, George, “Piss Eloquent,” Artforum International v.38 no.6 (Feb. 2000): 106-9
Borthwick, Ben, End of Story, exh. cat. Nordic Pavillion/Paesi Nordici, 48. Biennale di Venezia (1999)
Caillois, Roger, “Mimicry and Legendary Psychasthenia,” October: The First Decade ed. Michelson, Krauss, Crimp & Copjec (MIT Press: Cambridge, MA, 1987): 59-74
Foucault, Michel, “Other Spaces,” Lotus International v. 48-49 (1986): 9-17
Horlock, Mary, Knut Åsdam et al., Knut Åsdam Works 1995 – 2000 (Galleri Tommy Lund: Copenhagen, Denmark, 2000)
Kantor, Jordan, "Knut Åsdam: Klemens Gasser & Tanja Grünert, Inc. Artforum International v.39 no.5 (Jan. 2001): 140-41

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