Curated by Selene Wendt

The Norwegian artist Siri Hermansen will have a solo exhibition at The Fondazione Pastificio Cerere, in Rome. The exhibition opens on April 10, 2008.

After having participated in an artist’s residency at Platform China in Beijing, Siri Hermansen returned to Norway with an exciting project proposal. Her continuing interest in the human condition, and particularly issues relating to consumer culture and mass consumption, are powerfully expressed through photography, video and objects.

In a serious of portrait photographs Siri Hermansen captures the identities of the individuals who are being exploited by capitalists, giving faces to the otherwise anonymous individuals who make the money machine work.
The portraits pay homage to the millions of impoverished individuals who suffer under the worst living conditions imaginable while working for some of the wealthiest members of Chinese society.

The tremendous gap between the rich and poor is further emphasized with a money tree made up of Chinese yen bills that are essentially worthless within the Italian and Norwegian gallery environments where they will be presented (the exhibition will also be presented at RAM Galleri in Oslo in 2009).

Adding to the entire concept of the exhibition, Siri Hermansen has commissioned one of the workers whom she photographed to create slippers that the public will be invited to purchase.

She thereby takes it upon herself as an artist to make a small, but very positive contribution to improve the circumstances that she critiques through her work.

Siri Hermansen has exhibited extensively throughout Norway and Europe.
In 2004 she had a major solo exhibition Time Ecstasy at UKS (The Young Artists Association) in Oslo. In 2006 she presented her solo exhibition Bipolar Horizon at The Stenersen Museum entitled.
Siri Hermansen was one of the artists commissioned to do a work for the group exhibition Rock and Roll Volume One at Norkjøping Konstmuseum.

She is currently involved in a major international exhibition project organized by Interkunst, Stockholm called Seas which she will present the outdoor sound installation Borderline which will be presented in various locations including Istanbul.

The exhibition is a collaboration between The Stenersen Museum in Oslo, Norway and The Fondazione Pastificio Cerere, Roma.