Stepping into the shadowy room which is the setting for Søren Matinsens installation Country Song is like stepping into the hypnotic darkness of the cinema and being immediately disturbed and disoriented. The observer experiences a spatial schism between the infinite unfolding expansivenesss of the paintings and the videoinstallation which gathers the room into a closed introverted centre. There is a tension between internal and external, subject and world, which is. emphasised by the aesthetic contrast between themeticulously painted surfaces of the paintings and the aw expression of the realistically documented video pictures. This strongly psychologically charged space constitutes a platform for challenging one’s concept of the country – the landscape and nature – not just as an actual site, a physical topography, but as topos, a linguistically and culturally adopted concept, and as a utopia.

- Birgitte Anderberg