Emma and Edvard Looking Sideways

de Mieke Bal

Two true masters come face to face when the works of Edvard Munch are juxtaposed against Gustave Flaubert's groundbreaking novel Madame Bovary. For the first time, Edvard Munch's art is presented together with an elaborate video installation. Madame B (2014) was created by Michelle Williams Gamaker and the internationally acclaimed cultural theorist, artist, and curator Mieke Bal. In this compelling book Mieke Bal explores the double theme of social loneliness and the cinematic mode of expression. Loneliness is often caused by a denial of communication, signified by the socially clumsy mode of ±looking sideways?. The author explores the cinematic aspects present in Munch's still images as well as Flaubert's pre-cinematic novel, and combines contemporary art theory with her own idiosyncratic way of looking at art - directly and closely. The reader is made to reflect upon how we view each other in social situations and question what happens when we are denied visual dialogue. Exhibition: Munch Museum, Oslo, Norway (28.01-17.04.2017).