WANDER PONDER GOING YONDER

Munchmuseum on the move,
2016

Tallerås’s project for Munchmuseet on the Move consists of three parts. Adieu to Here No Matter Where is a silkscreen print mounted in the Munch Museum’s atrium. Footnotes is an audio guide for the streets of the borough known as Gamle Oslo (Old Oslo), which takes individuals on a tour of highlights from Tallerås’s many walks in the Munch Museum’s neighbourhood, through Tøyen and Grønland. The 45-minute walk leads from the Munch Museum to a temporary space in Galleri Oslo. The solo exhibition in this provisional outpost of the Munch Museum, shows a new photographic series by Tallerås, entitled Loitering Linguistics, in which the artist has captured some of the spray-painted symbols that exist in the urban locality: seemingly random crosses, semi-circles and other markings. Earlier video works are also part of the exhibition, and act as context for Tallerås’s on-going investigations into the urban context, walking in the city, and his interest the concealed communication at play across the cityscape.

- Tominga Hope O'donnell

Tallerås walked the letters of the quote from French poet Arthur Rimbaud where the street map allowed the letters to be drawn. Via the Runkeeper app, his walks were recorded and could be transcribed onto a Google map. The 28 kilometres that make up the letters in Adieu to Here No Matter Where do not begin to encompass the many kilometres the artist has walked between the different streets.
‍
The use of Rimbaud is indicative of Tallerås’s penchant of walking as an artistic approach, and hints at the anxiety associated with constantly being on the move. With a practice based on movement, there is no stopping, no turning back. Frédéric Gros, one of Tallerås’s many literary references, wrote of Rimbaud in his book A Philosophy of Walking (2014):

Adieu to here, no matter where’… Taking to the road always means departing: leaving behind… And when you leave, you always feel this mixture of anxiety and light-heartedness. Anxious because you are abandoning something (coming back is a failure; it is impossible to come back on foot, except from a simple short stroll; but when you walk for a long time, several days, it’s impossible; walking means going forward; the road is long, coming back would mean wasted hours; time is serious and weighty). But light-hearted due to all you are leaving behind; the others stay, remain on the spot, stuck. While our lightness of heart is carrying us somewhere else, trembling.