Tori Wrånes works with voice, sculpture, installation and people. Wrånes is a singer and visual artist and known for her dreamlike work scenarios in everything from small to gigantic productions. It can be above or below water. On a mountainside or in a ski resort. Wrånes had her international breakthrough with the commissioned work YES NIX for the Performa 13 Biennale in New York, and has subsequently delivered commissioned works all over the world, including for the Sydney Biennale (Australia), the Lagos Biennale (Nigeria) and the Thailand Biennale (Thailand). Her works include others shown at Sculpture Center NYC, Dhaka Art Foundation (Bangladesh) and Colombo Art Biennale (Sri Lanka), Shulamit Nazarian Gallery, Los Angeles to name a few.

1. What does the title “RETRO CAT” mean to you?

At first I thought that there was a nice rhythm and mood in the two words – something”sports-like” and absurd. After working my way further into the title I realised that “retro”, i.e. something that has been and is coming back, can be about life itself. People are born and die every second all over the world. In that sense, I have thought that living is the greatest existential retro movement on earth – that life comes again and again, again, and again – and again. The world today shows us that it is a privilege to live, and is absolutely not something that’s should be taken for granted. Nevertheless, we manage to erase the foundations for our existence; nature. We worked a lot with biodiversity and rewilding during the production period, to research different physical, political and, poetic situations.

2. What is your artistic vision for this project?

I want the cat and the dog to make peace.

3. Where do you get your inspiration from, and how did the idea for RETRO CAT come about?

When I was on a cycling trip on the island of Naoshima in Japan, and we were going to bike to catch a ferry, I fell a bit behind and listened to some cats ferociously fighting each other. I think RETRO CAT is about power relations, formally as well as emotionally. I came across this quote by Toni Morrison the other day that I think is very apt.