2008 City Angel, solo exhibition at Galleria Jangva, Helsinki 

Content: In window facing the street:  Cityangel neon sign 20x72 cm 2008. In main room, two large scale projections á 2,70 x 4 m: Running Angel, 4.49 min 2008 and Curing Wall no3, endless video loop 2007. In entrance, two 7´DVD player on wall: Preparing a Private Space, 5.29min 2000 and Happening with nurses, Galleria Jangva 2000 4.29 min 2004. 3 video stills silkscreens on aluminum.

city angel videos I - III

Volt-HBL- lördag 23.februari 2008 FIN by Barbro Teir

CITY ANGEL PRESS RELEASE 
B J Ø R G   T A R A N G E R 22.2.- 9.3.2008  
Galleria Jangva ti-pe 11-19, la-su 11-17, 
Uudenmaankatu 4-6, sisäpiha, 00120 Helsinki. 
www.jangva.fi 
Contact: Riitta Aalto, tel 09-6123742
For the second time Bjørg Taranger; a Norwegian artist living in Bergen Norway, will exhibit her City Angel project at Galleria Jangva. Originally this was exhibited as a part of the ArtGenda biennial in 2000, where she documented her performance with two nurses; Arja-Leena and Paula, who were invited to make a hospital bed in the gallery space. The City Angel project has further developed over the past few years with new works, performances and exhibitions in Oslo, Bergen, Ålesund and Düsseldorf. Taranger explores the position of human life in relation to modern care values. The setting is the urban city, and through various art forms (from minor installations to film, print, and performance) humanity is explored through the theme of nursing. Taranger documents repetitive actions of care carried out by nurses in actual hospitals, which are in turn mirrored in gallery performances and then reproduced yet again through new video performances. The video documentation of these performances add to the second hand nature of the experience, leading into a more modern understanding of care and ethics, something Taranger considers essential to communication with a modern public. The balance of live performance with documentary enriches the form of the work and creates a mutual confirmation that provides the act with a past, present and future. In City Angel the matter of maintenance and welfare; the practice of reworking the urban life, turning indifference to consideration through professionalized concern and deeply felt affection, is both celebrated and questioned in a detached and humorous, but nonetheless touching way.
Her last video work, Running Angel, brings together, in the overlapped editing, pulse and tempo, challenges and danger- all the time connecting symbols of safety; the green pharmacy cross, the nurses and the caretakers. The pulse goes together like a beat through the film: the pulse of the city, of the pulse of the human beings - the rhythm of our life.