Fredrik Wretman Taptim

8 November 2008 29 March 2009

Installation view
Excercishallen, Färgfabriken Norr

Taptim by Fredrik Wretman is a large water installation that duplicates the space and inhabits live fish.

Taptim builds on the work shown at the opening exhibition Teleport Färgfabriken earlier this year. What started on a small scale has now grown into a huge installation. The exhibition plays with a Wretmanian duality: he opens the room and closes it, through what has become Wretman’s signature: the water surface.

Fredrik Wretman allows the old exercise hall to appear duplicated to appear in a completely new way. The reseult is grand, breathtaking and contemplative. This is the first time the initial installation from Barbar’s mythical basement in Stockholm in 1985 is installed on a large scale, when recreated at Färgfabriken Norr. The surface of the water is not completely still. It is moved and disturbed by carp fish swimming below the surface. The movement of the carp sets the entire water surface in motion and thus creates a live projection on a large screen at the back of the room.

As an additional element of the exhibition, the Berlin-based sound artist Robert Henke has prepared a unique version of the track Indigo. A timeless, ever-changing soundscape accompanies and enhances the installation. But the exhibition is not only about the room, the surface and the tranquility. It is also a comment on contemporary consumption and the fishing industry. To farm predatory fish, such as salmon, the bottom of the sea is raked in every way imaginable and the “free” fish as a consequence are left without food. Why not go for organic fish farms with herbivorous fish such as carp? In other parts of the world, fish is farmed in a much more gentle manner. The discussion is also part of the environmental lab with a focus on energy that is organized at Färgfabriken Norr on November 26.

Between April 2008 and January 2011, Färgfabriken ran the Färgfabriken Norr branch in Östersund. The project was conducted in collaboration with Jämtland County Council and was partially EU-financed. Around twenty exhibitions, concerts, workshops and conferences were organised during the project period.