VANNMONOPOL – The Water Monopoly
The Water Monopoly Art installation
VANNMONOPOL was special made for a Norwegian church exhibition with the theme «water» as part of the cultural activities og the 2012 Culture Week in Fetsund. The exhibition period from 26.10 to 04.11 in 2012
The installation serves as an intermediary experience between the following contextual references:
- Locality Fetsund Church. At the time Norway still has one state church
- The state controlled alcohol distribution through Vinmonopolet (wine monopoly)
- The attempts to control the worlds fresh water (water monopoly)
- And the first wonder by Jezus at the wedding at Cana
Bottles and screen
The central part of the installation Water Monopoly (a prototype) consists of 25 bottles in clear glass. 16 bottles are filled with clear water. 9 bottles containing more reddish transparent fluid. The bottles are labeled with a Water Monopoly logo. All bottles also contain a Norwegian thorny gooseberry branch. The bottles are placed in a rectangle on a glass plate on top of a TV screen. The red bottles are positioned like a cross. Tv screen is hidden in a white square box with Water Monopoly logo and name on the sides and a white cloth covering the top with an opening for the TV screen. The bases is a slice of trunk of an old birch tree that has been in the forest for many years. Overall size 55B x 55L x 113H CM
Video and audio:
Tv screen showing a video loop with blue water images and sounds from a local stream with white Water Monopoly logo on top. Halfway through the loop comes some short more red video images and brief audio fragments from Handel, palpitations and Jewish wedding music as a reference to the wedding at Cana(John 2)
”This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him…”