RAKE – Emilie’s House

Opening 19 September

RAKE

 

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On 19 September, RAKE invites to a housewarming party in the backyard of Emilie’s House, owned by the City Museum of Levanger (Bymuseet i Levanger). Emilie’s House is a typical working-class house in ‘nerbyen’ (downtown) in Levanger, an area also called Rotterdam, allegedly because many boys from the neighbourhood went to sea. As many as 11 people have lived in this building with a floor area of 46 m2. The property also includes an outhouse and a functional bread oven in the backyard.

For a whole month, RAKE will inhabit the small blue house and study the influence of museum activities on everyday life. How do the house and the history of the neighbourhood impact the duo’s work? RAKE is interested in how to make use of different urban spaces. The impact of social meeting places such as parks, cafés and streets play an important role in RAKE’s work, and will represent a major part of the explorations taking place in Levanger. During this period, the little house will function as a housing unit, a museum and a studio, and on several occasions RAKE will invite the citizens of Levanger to open-house arrangements. During the project, the duo will enter the borderland between work and leisure, private and public, preserved past and present.

RAKE is a collaboration between artist Charlotte Rostad and architect Trygve Ohren. In 2011, they established RAKE showroom in Trondheim, inviting 30 architecture students to contribute to its design and construction. The distinctive building has been presented in numerous architectural magazines, and was nominated and short-listed for the Mies van der Rohe Award in 2013. In addition to running the showroom, RAKE initiates projects examining the intersections between art and architecture, frequently inviting other artists, architects and writers to various forms of cooperation. Recent projects include the RAKE Mobile Residency Programme – the creation of a residency in a converted van; Constant. Decay. – a group exhibition in the decrepit tenement house Elgesetergate 30B; ‘Now what?’ – a 10 day workshop in the centre of Kviteseid, southwest Norway, that resulted in an installation in the town’s main street; and the spectacular move of RAKE showroom to Brattørkaia in Trondheim. This gives the showroom a new lease on life, and allows the duo to work in an entirely new and different context.