Deck of Echoes (2011-12).

A standard size deck of playing cards and a spiral bound booklet, 18 x 12 cm, 84 pages. Edition of 50.

The project ties up two events. The first happened in Antarctica 1919, within a secluded community of whalers. The second in a park in the middle of Oslo, on a hot summer afternoon 2007. Both feature football, violence, and racism, and both escalated completely out of proportions. A third and forth event connects them.

     A deck of illustrated cards and a booklet with an explanatory text for each card recount the events. The reader, spectator, (or player) have 53 entry points to a group of loosely connected narratives without a clearly defined beginning or end. The deck of card examines the roles of culprits, victims, investigators, witnesses, interpreters, players, locations, catalysts, documents and evidence. As the creator of the deck, I have included myself among the interpreters. None of them (us ...) are to be trusted.

     The deck also document it’s own creation. A visit to the south of Iceland spawned the idea of the project, An invitation to an exhibition in Michigan lead to its realization.

      In Ypsilanti (Detroit) I presented a prototype of the deck, together with a series of map-drawings emphasizing the connection to Iceland. During the first half of 2012, I produced a Norwegian version of the deck, this time as a multiple.