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mmmMarbleswork_faded_remains.html
mmmMarbles 

15 archival pigment photographs, Egyptian blue and white UV-pigment on frame glass

Read essay Parthenon Provenances 
by Mari Lending about the project (pdf)
The focal point of mmmMarbles, Espen Gleditsch's exhibition, is the Parthenon’s one-hundred-and-sixty-metre-long marble frieze, created for the temple in Athens nearly two thousand five hundred years ago. The ruins of the temple and the white marble frieze have been a recurring source of inspiration for epoch-making tendencies in Western art and cultural history. It is also subject to problematic interpretations, with one recurring misconception, dating back to the sixteenth century and the Renaissance, being that ancient sculpture and architecture were originally executed in pure, white, unpainted marble.

The Parthenon sculptures, also known as the Elgin Marbles, are caught up in an over two-hundred-year-old political cobweb; large parts of the frieze were in the early nineteenth century transported from Athens to London by the 7th Earl of Elgin and sold to the British state. Since then, the legitimacy of the exportation has been the subject of ongoing debate, both outside and within the United Kingdom’s borders. Demands for repatriation of the collection of sculptures to Athens have become an ever-evolving and inflamed political issue in Greece-United Kingdom relations.

The Parthenon sculptures bear the marks of more than two thousand years of external conditions, the results of which have been profound: from war, weathering, and looting in Athens to salt damage during the crossing to England and extensive patina from London's coal-polluted air, not to mention the controversial and destructive restoration at the British Museum in the 1930s, led by the private benefactor and art dealer Joseph Duveen, which caused extensive and permanent damage to the surfaces of the sculptures. The intention was to make the patinated marble conform more closely to the mistaken ideal of ancient sculpture as pearly white.

In the project mmmMarbles, Espen Gleditsch photographed a specific group of works from the British Museum with a very specific provenance. He directs the focus towards a historical and a political reality by depicting the material historicity of the Parthenon frieze. His interest in how narratives about historical and contemporary events are established, conveyed, and legitimised, as well as his interest in classical sculpture, modernist architecture, museum spaces, and, not least, in colours and surfaces, come together in the exhibition in which the extremely precise representation of the stone evokes both historical conditions and conceptual abstraction.
Text: Lars Sture, director of Kunstnerforbundet, Oslo
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The photographs in the project are close readings of the marble frieze in the British Museum. The large format photographs (80x100 cm & 100x125 cm) emphasize details, marks and wear. Seven of these have semi-transparent gradients printed in white and Egyptian blue ink on the frame glass in front of the images. The book mmmMarbles, published by Heavy Books, featuring 52 photographs and an essay by Mari Lending, professor of architectural theory and history, accompanies the exhibition.

The project is generously supported by Kulturrådet, Norsk Fotografisk Fond and Billedkunstnernes Vederlagsfond.https://espengleditsch.com/pdf/parthenon_provenances_lending.pdfhttps://espengleditsch.com/pdf/parthenon_provenances_lending.pdfshapeimage_3_link_0shapeimage_3_link_1
mmmMARBLES, 2022 
INSTALLATION VIEW, 
KUNSTNERFORBUNDET, OSLO
THE REINS, 2022
102 X 82 CM 
archival pigment print & 
egyptian blue uv-pigment on frame glass  
mounted on aluminium and framed
workwork_index.html
contactmailto:contact@espengleditsch.com?subject=
publicationspub_index.html
biohttp://espengleditsch.com/pdf/cv.pdf
Espen Gleditschindex.html
mmmMARBLES, 2022 
INSTALLATION VIEW, 
KUNSTNERFORBUNDET, OSLO
mmmMARBLES, 2022 
INSTALLATION VIEW, 
KUNSTNERFORBUNDET, OSLO
mmmMARBLES, 2022 
INSTALLATION VIEW, 
KUNSTNERFORBUNDET, OSLO
mmmMARBLES, 2022 
INSTALLATION VIEW, 
KUNSTNERFORBUNDET, OSLO
THE REINS, 2022
102 X 82 CM 
archival pigment print & 
white uv-pigment on frame glass  
mounted on aluminium and framed
RECLINE, 2022
127 X 102 CM 
archival pigment print 
mounted on aluminium and framed
mmmMARBLES, 2022 
INSTALLATION VIEW, 
KUNSTNERFORBUNDET, OSLO
mmmMARBLES, 2022 
INSTALLATION VIEW, 
KUNSTNERFORBUNDET, OSLO
MARSHAL IN HIMATION, 2022
102 X 82 CM 
archival pigment print 
mounted on aluminium and framed
mmmMARBLES, 2022 
INSTALLATION VIEW, 
KUNSTNERFORBUNDET, OSLO
CRUMBLE, 2022
102 X 82 CM 
archival pigment print
white uv-pigment on frame glass 
mounted on aluminium and framed
mmmMARBLES, 2022 
INSTALLATION VIEW, 
KUNSTNERFORBUNDET, OSLO
mmmMARBLES, 2022 
INSTALLATION VIEW, 
KUNSTNERFORBUNDET, OSLO
mmmMARBLES, 2022 
INSTALLATION VIEW, 
KUNSTNERFORBUNDET, OSLO
mmmMARBLES, 2022 
INSTALLATION VIEW, 
KUNSTNERFORBUNDET, OSLO
SPLIT HEAD, 2022
102 X 82 CM 
archival pigment print
white uv-pigment on frame glass 
mounted on aluminium and framed
mmmMARBLES, 2022 
INSTALLATION VIEW, 
KUNSTNERFORBUNDET, OSLO
HORSEMAN, 2022
102 X 82 CM 
archival pigment print
egyptian blue uv-pigment on frame glass 
mounted on aluminium and framed
mmmMARBLES, 2022 
INSTALLATION VIEW, 
KUNSTNERFORBUNDET, OSLO
mmmMARBLES, 2022 
INSTALLATION VIEW, 
KUNSTNERFORBUNDET, OSLO
mmmMARBLES, 2022 
INSTALLATION VIEW, 
KUNSTNERFORBUNDET, OSLO
mmmMARBLES, 2022 
INSTALLATION VIEW, 
KUNSTNERFORBUNDET, OSLO
APHRODITE, CRADLED IN HER MOTHER’S LAP, 2022
127 X 102 CM 
archival pigment print
mounted on aluminium and framed
mmmMARBLES, 2022 
INSTALLATION VIEW, 
KUNSTNERFORBUNDET, OSLO
THE OINOCHOE, 2022
102 X 82 CM 
archival pigment print
mounted on aluminium and framed
mmmMARBLES, 2022 
INSTALLATION VIEW, 
KUNSTNERFORBUNDET, OSLO
mmmMARBLES, 2022 
INSTALLATION VIEW, 
KUNSTNERFORBUNDET, OSLO
DIONYSOS, 2022
102 X 82 CM 
archival pigment print
mounted on aluminium and framed
mmmMARBLES, 2022 
INSTALLATION VIEW, 
KUNSTNERFORBUNDET, OSLO
FLICKERING MANES, 2022
102 X 82 CM 
archival pigment print
mounted on aluminium and framed
mmmMARBLES, 2022 
INSTALLATION VIEW, 
KUNSTNERFORBUNDET, OSLO
mmmMARBLES, 2022 
INSTALLATION VIEW, 
KUNSTNERFORBUNDET, OSLO
mmmMARBLES, 2022 
INSTALLATION VIEW, 
KUNSTNERFORBUNDET, OSLO
FLICKERING MANES, 2022
102 X 82 CM 
archival pigment print
white uv-pigment on frame glass
mounted on aluminium and framed
mmmMARBLES, 2022 
INSTALLATION VIEW, 
KUNSTNERFORBUNDET, OSLO
ARES, IRIS & HERA, 2022
102 X 82 CM 
archival pigment print
mounted on aluminium and framed
mmmMARBLES, 2022 
INSTALLATION VIEW, 
KUNSTNERFORBUNDET, OSLO
STAIN, 2022
102 X 82 CM 
archival pigment print
mounted on aluminium and framed
mmmMARBLES, 2022 
INSTALLATION VIEW, 
KUNSTNERFORBUNDET, OSLO
mmmMARBLES, 2022 
INSTALLATION VIEW, 
KUNSTNERFORBUNDET, OSLO
STAIN, 2022
102 X 82 CM 
archival pigment print
white uv-pigment on frame glass
mounted on aluminium and framed