Olga Benedicte
Tears of Salt

Holm Houses courtyards outhouse
Välikatu 10, 06100 Porvoo
28.5.–28.8.2022
Opening hours Tue–Sun 10–16

In her art, Olga Benedicte works with a focus on the body and the physical phenomena in and around it, and on how technological developments influences the body.

Benedicte works in multiple materials and techniques. For the outhouse in the Holm Houses courtyards, she has created a site-specific sculptural installation incorporating salt, water, latex and concrete. The work takes its starting point in hydrofeminism, a set of ideas in which the body is given prominence as a container for water.

Water is the link that binds us to all living things on a global scale, all changes in water are also changes in us. At the same time, the model breaks down the hierarchy dividing humans from animals. Benedicte’s aim has been in studying water as a medium that moves in, on and through different materials. Water makes it possible for salts to move and to crystalize in different parts of the work. The outhouse in the Porvoo Old Town has neither lighting nor electricity. This has made it a challenging site, but at the same time Benedicte has aimed to see it as a resource to work with.

Olga Benedicte (b. 1988, Denmark) lives and works in Copenhagen. She gained a Master’s in Fine Arts from Jutland Art Academy in 2018, spending 2016-17 on an exchange at the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki. She has shown at: Art Sonje Center (Seoul, South Korea); in Denmark in Rønnebæksholm Kunsthal (Næstved), Kunsthal Aarhus (Aarhus), SculptureOdense´21, Hollufgård (Odense), Trapholt – museum of modern art, craft and design (Kolding), and Sculpture Park Billund (Billund), as well as in Helsinki in Exhibition Laboratory.

Markus Åström
Curator

Olga Benedicte was working in the Porvoo Art Factory Residency during April and May 2022, invited by the Pro Artibus Foundation. The residency is run by the City of Porvoo’s Culture Services.

Pro Artibus Foundation has Porvoo as its focus area in the years 2021 and 2022. This means that part of the foundation’s activities is focused in Porvoo. Among other things, Pro Artibus collaborates with City of Porvoo Culture Services, Porvoo Art Hall and the Art Factory Residency.

The artist would like to thank Henrik Lindqvist, Camilla Granbacka and a special thanks to a great colleague and friend Ylva Holländer and her husband.