Marius
Andre
Bio:
Marius Mathias Soldal Andre is a multidisciplinary artist, musician, and creator. Born in Boston MA to an American father and Norwegian mother, he is a third culture kid having moved away from his hometown on Cape Cod MA when he was eight years old. He spent the rest of his childhood in Istanbul Türkiye and Baku Azerbaijan where he graduated high school with an IB Diploma. Before continuing his academic career at the Rhode Island School of Design, Marius spent a gap year in Voss Norway where he became a licensed ski instructor, completed an album, and explored the vast wilderness of Scandinavia.
Growing up exposed to all these cultures kindled his interest in the natural world, shaped by the Norwegian philosophy of 'Friluftsliv' (translating literally to 'open air life'), and how the unique human experience and our diverse cultures can enchant our relationships with the natural world. Marius uses his art as a method of communicating concepts, emotions, and observations, focused on re-imbuing our daily lives with wonder and enchantment with the natural and more-than-human world.
Artist Statement:
“Care flows naturally if the self is widened and deepened so that protection of free nature is felt and conceived of as protection of our very selves. we must find and develop therapies which heal our relations with the widest community, that of all living beings.” - Arne Naess
We are undeniably entangled with our more-than-human world through our impact on it and, in return, its impact on us. Amid the apathy towards environmental concerns, I hope to inspire a moment of consciousness to pause, notice, and be mindful of these tangles, maybe even pull at them. By interrupting our expectations of nature, art can rekindle our sense of wonder and enchantment with the entangled world we are a part of. Drawing our attention to the environment that we take for granted, the things worth preserving.
Much of the human experience consists of our relationships with the external world beyond our interiors. Our continued isolation from and exploitation of the natural, external world has prevented us from connecting with and valuing the life around us. We have untangled ourselves from our regional environments, our biota, resulting in direct and patchy changes in our global and regional ecology.
Using living materials and through site-specific interventions my pieces evolve into decaying and dynamic systems, echoing the natural world. These material properties coupled with conceptual underpinnings based in empirical research, deep ecology, and cultural explorations shape my practice into a web of life and thought.