OCA International — In Brief
Norwegian Artists and Curators Abroad
Selected International Venues

Biennials

Pushwagner and Lars Laumann included within the 5th berlin biennial for contemporary art, Berlin, Germany
Curatorial team: Adam Szymczyk and Elena Filipovic
Open: 5 April–15 June, 2008

Adam Szymczyk and Elena Filipovic, curators of the 5th berlin biennial, taking place day and night from 5 April to June 15, 2008 under the title When things cast no shadow, have selected the Norwegian artists, Pushwagner and Lars Laumann, to participate in the biennial. At Kunstwerke, the work of Pushwagner is exhibited as contextualized within the series Soft City (1969–1975), a pictorial novel which gives an account of one day in the life of an anonymous father–mother–child family, living a mechanical life in a dehumanized city. The curators' interest in the work stems from the way the pictorial novel has served as a key work that simultaneously acts as source material for Pushwagner's later production, but also an important reference for the generation of artists that followed him. In showing it, they hope it will "give access to a significant work of art still unknown to a larger public and thus paying tribute to an important work not yet having received proper recognition."

Lars Laumann will screen his latest film, Berlinmuren (2008), which centers on a highly unusual relationship: the love affair between Eija-Riita Berliner-Mauer and the Berlin Wall. Laumann's approach is not primarily documentary but is guided instead by a respectful interest in the idiosyncrasies of marginalized social phenomena – not only that such relationships are possible in modern popular culture, but also how society reacts to them. The music for the film was specially written and recorded by Swedish guitarist Dan-Ola Persson. Laumann designed the special structure built on the wasteland area of Skulpturenpark Berlin_Zentrum to screen the film. The structure is a house with two rooms, one screening the English version and one screening the German dubbed version.

Lars Laumann also curated an exhibition of Pushwagner as one of the five alternating, artist-curated solo shows of more obscure and/or historic figures from the world of art, architecture, and design. The exhibition presents paintings from the Apocalypse series realized by Pushwagner in the 1980s and 1990s and take place at the Schinkel Pavillon between 11 and 27 April. For further information visit the biennial website.

Participation of aiPotu, Lene Berg, Annie Anawana Haloba Hobøl and Pushwagner and special projects by Vibeke Tandberg and Matias Faldbakken, in the 16th Biennale of Sydney, Australia.
Curator: Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev
Open: 18 June–7 September, 2008
Press Preview: Tuesday, 17 June

The 2008 Biennale of Sydney as curated by its Artistic Director, Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev entitled Revolutions – Forms that Turn will include a presentation of approximately 80 artists with works from 1913 to today. According to Christov-Bakargiev, the "exhibition will navigate in different ways artists have revolutionized contemporary art."

The Norwegian duo aiPotu will contribute to the Sydney Biennale with two separate works, both related to their ongoing Island Tour. The first work, entitled If you don't like the weather – wait 15 minutes, is an installation to be shown inside the Museum for Contemporary Art in Sydney. The second work is a maritime construction site at the Cockatoo Island, in the Sydney Harbour. Annie Anawana Haloba Hobøl will present the project When the Private Become Public, an investigation on the private vs. the public realm. In the words of the artist the project "brings three characters (an Aboriginal woman, an African woman and a woman of western descent) and will together create a triangle linkage of their individuality, different cultures, and other experiences that are embedded in them. These women are to translate the changes and turns within the private realm and will enact them into a performance that will be shot in the desert. The final piece will be a film/sound installation". Pushwagner will show Klaxton II, (2000); Manhattan, (2004–2006), the pictorial novel Soft City, (1968–1976) and the animation Soft City, (2006–2008). Lene Berg will present a new project consisting of a video and a series of images and objects entitled The Drowned One. Having the first photographic images of a human being (The Drowned One by Hippolyte Bayard) as its point of departure, The Drowned One deals with photographic paradoxes. The work will be shown on Cockatoo Island outside Sydney Harbour and in October, the project will be presented at Fotogalleriet in Oslo, Norway.

Although included in the previous Sydney biennial, the artistic director has also invited artists Vibeke Tandberg and Matias Faldbakken to create special projects in conjunction with the formal exhibition. Vibeke Tandberg's video Old Man Going Up and Down a Staircase (2003) will be included and Matias Faldbakken will present a slide show as a continuation of his recent image series Untitled (Young is Better Than Old) (2008). The images are composed by overlapping words rendered with black isolation tape on canvas, paper or directly onto the wall. In such a manner, the text becomes unreadable and the message is obscured. According to the artist, this way of working suppresses language in favor of a mute and negating visual gesture. The Sydney Biennial will also showcase important historical works from the collection of Erling Neby in Oslo.

The biennial takes place in various venues and sites throughout Sydney, and has been supported with a grant from OCA's International Support Programme. A portion of this grant is provided by 03–funding*. For further developing information, please refer to Biennale of Sydney, or contact info@oca.no. You can preview artworks, texts and links in the 2008 Biennale of Sydney Online Venue.

Participation of Knut Åsdam, Annie Anawana Haloba Hobøl, Kristina Bræin and Helen & Hard Architects in Manifesta 7
Trentino — Südtirol/Alto Adige, Italy
Curators: Adam Budak, Anselm Franke/Hila Peleg, and Raqs Media Collective
Open: 19 July–2 November, 2008
Professional preview: 17 July and 18 July, from 11:00 to 19:00
Press Conference and the official opening: 19 July

Manifesta 7 will take place in a region linking the cities of Franzenfeste/Fortezza, Bozen/Bolzano, Trento and Rovereto. Three curatorial teams have been selected to realize the project, each working as a co-ordinated, but autonomous curatorial unit: Raqs Media Collective, formed by Jeebesh Bagchi, Monica Narula & Shuddhabrata Sengupta will be working at ex-Alumix, an industrial building from the beginning of the 20th Century, in Bolzano. Anselm Franke and Hila Peleg, in Trento, will work at the former Post Office, a rationalist building from the 1930s, and Adam Budak will develop his exhibition between the 20th Century ex-Peterlini industrial building and the 19th century Manifattura Tabacchi, in Rovereto. The curators will collaborate on the fourth venue within the fortress of Fortezza, with a project exploring the concept of immaterial dimension. About 140 artists will participate in the biennial.

For Manifesta 7, Knut Åsdam will present a new work, which spans from architectural installation to the cinematic in a hybrid installation that encompasses a large narrative architectural environment. Annie Anawana Haloba Hobøl will premiere the video The Air between Two Women: a conversation between Italian video artist Francesca Grilli and Annie Anawana Haloba Hobøl about their mental ‘residue’ and how they can find a language in which these ‘mental residue’ can co-exists collectively. At ex–Alumix, the Stavanger based architecture office Helen & Hard will present a site-specific installation that initiates resonance and evocative relations between natural and cultural/political spaces.

For accreditation form for the press preview, refer to: http://pressform.manifesta7.it/en/. For professional accreditation, please contact: professional@manifesta7.it. Please refer to manifesta7.it for further information and press accreditation.

Gardar Eide Einarsson participates in the Whitney Biennial 2008, New York, NY, USA
Curators: Shamim Momim and Henriette Huldisch
Open: 6 March–1 June, 2008

The curatorial team of Shamim Momim, Associate Curator at the Whitney, and Henriette Huldisch, Assistant Curator at the Whitney, has selected Gardar Eide Einarsson (b. 1976) among 80 other artists to participate in the 2008 Whitney Biennial. In the Whitney Biennial, Gardar Eide Einarsson is presenting Come and Take It (2008) and Black Suit Sic Semper Tyrannis (2008), in which the artist makes references to American History as a way to comment on authority and protection. The exhibition which runs through 1 June is noted as the Whitney's "signature exhibition as well as the most important survey of the state of contemporary art in the United States today." Other artists within this year's Biennial include Rita Ackermann, Carol Bove, Coco Fusco, Gang Gang Dance, Rachael Harrison, Ellen Harvey, Mary Heilmann, Karen Kliminick, Louise Lawler, Spike Lee, Lucky Dragons, Corey McCorkle, Rodney McMillan, Seth Price, Frances Starck, Mungo Thomson, James Welling, among others. A full schedule of events is available at Whitney's webpage.

Samba Fall is invited by Ousseynou Wade, General Secretary of Dak'Art to exhibit within Dak'Art 2008, 8th edition of the Biennale of the Contemporary African Art, taking place in Dakar, Senegal, from 9 May to 9 June, 2008. The theme of Dak'Art 2008 is “Mirror” in relation to Africa's current presence in the world. Other participating artits are: Justin Kabré, Georges Fikry-Ibrahim, Gabriel Pacheco and Roberto Rico. For access to the online pressroom, please contact info@biennaledakar.org. The project is supported by 03–funding*.

Solo Exhibitions and Projects

Between 12 April and 22 June, 2008, Le musée de Sérignan, Sérignan, France is holding a Per Barclay solo exhibition. Entitled Sans parole (without word), the exhibition is curated by Hélène Audiffren, director of the Musée de Sérignan. For Sans parole, Per Barclay produced a new interactive installation, which regards the space as an essential part of the work. Composed by a labyrinth of wires, Sans parole responds to the movement and touch of the spectator by amplifying the sounds generated by the vibration of the wires. At the same time, many photographs come into resonance with Per Braclay's installation.

Per Barclay‘s solo exhibition at Centre de Création Contemporaine entitled Chambres d‘huile opened 8 March and will run until 1 June, 2008. Curated By Alain Julien–Laferrière, director of the Centre de Création Contemporaine, Chambres d‘huile focus on a specific aspect of his work: photographs of spaces with a "liquid floor". Since the late 80’s, the artist has been developing ephemeral in situ installations in which he covers the floors of enclosed spaces with black oil, water, wine or blood. The process creates mirroring or "reflecting" surfaces, which double the image of the location while at the same time opens it to the breathtaking depth of a virtual elsewhere. The exhibition will gather 15 large photographs, from 1989 to present. The exhibition will also be shown at the Fondation Merz, Italy from July to October, 2008.

Bull.Miletic’s (Synne Bull and Dragan Miletic) first solo exhibition in Serbia opened 11 April, at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade. Curated by Dr. Zoran Eric, curator of Center for Visual Culture at the Museum of Contemporary Art, the exhibition presents the project Unfinished: Scares of the Past / Face of the Future. Conceptualized and produced for the context of the city of Belgrade, the video installation refers to the “transitory presence in the physical residue of Belgrade’s monumental architecture as well as improvised urban structure”. Connecting multiple points of views, Unfinished reveals spatial and visual relationships, as it has been experienced through one's unconscious navigation and mental mapping. Unfinished: Scares of the Past / Face of the Future will run until 5 May, 2008. The project is supported by 03–funding*

Triangle France at the Friche Belle de Mai, in Marseille, France is currently holding a Kjersti Andvig solo exhibition. Entitled Personne ici n'est Innocent (No one Here is Innocent), the exhibition presents an installation that consists of the knitted reproduction of the cell of Carlton A. Turner, a black American prisoner who awaits his execution in "Death Row" in Texas. The installation is produced within a project framework that concerns the historical relationships between knitting and death penalty, which can be retraced to the figure of the Tricoteuse, lower class women that knitted while attending public executions during the French Revolution. No one Here is Innocent opened 5 April and will run until 10 may, 2008.

P.S.1/MoMA will host a solo project by Børre Sæthre scheduled to open in NYC in October 2008. The exhibition curated by Lia Gangitano, Curatorial Advisor to P.S.1/MoMA, will include the artist's various installations created specifically for his recent show under the title For Someone Who Nearly Died but Survived at the Bergen Kunsthall, Norway. Sæthre's installations evoke hybrid spaces reflecting upon the artist's own fantasies and confessions rendered in morphed interiors.

Floris Kruidenberg, Co-curator of 1646, in The Hague, The Netherlands invited Kristina Bræin to hold a solo exhibition at the newly renovated artists–run Project Space 1646. Kristina Bræin will develop a site specific work within the frame of her artistic practice and in line with the aim of the new exhibition/project program to be a place were artists develop new work on location rather then delivering a ready, detailed plan. The exhibition will take place between 6 and 28 June, 2008.

Kjell Bjørgeengen is invited for a solo exhibition and two separate performances at the 6th edition of Kill Your Timid Notion , at Dundee Contemporary Arts (DCA), Dundee, Scotland. Curated by Graham Domke, curator of Dundee Contemporary Arts and Barry Esson, curator at Erika, UK, Kill Your Timid Notion is a exhibition/festival that investigates the perceptual differences between what one sees and what one hears. In addition to a solo exhibition at the main gallery at DCA, Kjell Bjørgeengen will present a performative collaboration with Keith Rowe and Phillipp Waschmann, two of the leading figures in UK improvised music. The festival exhibitions will take place between 19 September and 9 October. Performances, screenings, talks, workshops and installations will be presented on 10, 11 and 12 October, 2008.

Angela Lennon Assistant Curator at Peacock Visual Arts, Aberdeen, Scotland has invited Kathrin Höhne and Bjarte Gismarvik to realize their project Bycatch between 19 and 20 August, 2008. Bycatch is an investigation into the decline of the fishing industry in Aberdeen and its effects on the local community. The project consists of three elements: a fanzine to be distributed throughout the city, a workshop involving a local community group and an exhibition at Peacock Visual Arts.

Trine Lise Nedreaas’ solo exhibition: Tomorrow Holds the Promise opened at the Kunstverein Schwerin on 12 March and will run through 20 April. Curated by Dr. Roeder, from the Staatliches Museum Schwerin in collaboration with the artist, the exhibition includes 20 drawings and two video works by Nedreaas. The video It Takes Two to Tango (2002) shows a man at the end of his life dancing in solitude in a large, empty ballroom. The film can be understood as a metaphor for a lifetime – a journey we ultimately do on our own. In Dead Lift (2005), shot during a weight-lifting championship, we see only the faces of the contenders. During extreme stress and pressure, their expressions seem to reveal an almost religious experience.

For his first solo show in Berlin, entitled At Times, Olav Christopher Jenssen exhibits a full spectrum of his works. Curated by Dr. Katja Blomberg, Artistic Director of Haus am Waldsee, At times will present large scale paintings, small watercolours, drawings, and installations made of aluminum, clay and plaster. "Working with layers, Jenssen builds images along abstract planar structures, working with an introspective, abstract network of thought". The exhibition at Haus am Waldsee opened 30 March and will run until 8 June, 2008.

Selected Group Exhibitions

Sissel Tolaas and Verdensteatret have been invited to exhibit within Synthetic Times — Media Art China 2008, a Cultural Olympics Project at the National Art Museum of China in Beijing. The exhibition curated by the NY based media curator, Zhang Ga, is organized around four distinctive yet interrelated themes that testify to the incessant and obsessive pursuit of an ideal world through artistic intervention into media and communication technologies as well as bio-cultural spheres. Sissel Tolaas who is one of the few artists currently working with smell, creates installations that explore real scents, questioning certain cultural prejudices. For Synthetic Times she will contribute with the project Fear 9, in which she collects and displays the smell of 9 different men who have nothing in common but the fear of body contact. The Norwegian collective Verdensteatret will present the installation The Telling Orchestra, "where images, sculptures, sound and video are deeply integrated into each other to form an audio-visual-spatial". As part of the Synthetic Times, several evening programs dedicated to countries that have made significant contributions to the developments of media art and culture will take place in Beijing. The exhibition will include approximately 50 media works and is scheduled from 9 June through 3 July, as one of the more important cultural events leading up to the Olympic Games in Beijing. The project is supported by 03–funding*.

Following a visit to Norway to participate in OCA's International Visitor Programme, the Director of Johannesburg Art Gallery, Clive Kellner and Maria Fidel Regueros have invited Torbjørn Rødland, Goksøyr & Martens (Toril Goksøyr and Camilla Martens), Bodil Furu and Maia Urstad to participate in the exhibition Disturbance – Contemporary Art from Scandinavia & South Africa. The exhibition will examine the relationship that Scandinavian and South African artists have to notions of identity and place. The thematic of the show will focus on "disturbance" – a term used here to explore ruptures in society. The artists Paul Gernes, Alija–Lisa and Veli Grano are anticipated to participate in the exhibition along side South African artists such as Anthea Moys, Lerato Shadi and Siemin Allen. Disturbance – Contemporary Art from Scandinavia & South Africa takes place at the Johannesburg Art Gallery, South Africa between October, 2008 and January, 2009. The project is supported by 03–funding*.

Unni Gjertsen is invited by Corinne Diserens, Director at MUSEION – Modern and Contemporary Art Museum, in Bolzano, Italy, and OCA IVP visitor in November last year, to select films by Sweedish director Mai Zetterling for the screening program of the exhibition Peripheral Look and Collective Body. The exhibition, which marks the opening of MUSEION's new building, discusses the question of the collective bodies in contemporary visual art considering the tight relationship with architecture and performance – dance, in particular. The artist will make a presentation of the films on 3 July at MUSEION. Peripheral Look and Collective Body opens on 24 May and closes on 21 September, 2008.

Anne Katrine Dolven is invited by curator Anna Bitkina to participate in the exhibition H2O Contemporary: Nordic and Russian Public Art in Non-Traditional Space. Initiated by CEC ArtsLink, the exhibition and summer public event, which has water as its theme, is aimed at increasing the interest of Russians for contemporary art by organizing an event with an approachable theme. For H2O Contemporary, Anne Karine Dolven will produce a video piece with the working title Liberty. The work questions the reality of what one actually sees and where one is. Other participating artists are Tommi Gronlund and Petteri Nisunen (Filand), Ulf Rollof (Sweden), Jacob Kirkegaard (Denmark) and Finnbogi Petursson (Iceland). H2O Contemporary: Nordic and Russian Public Art in Non-Traditional Space will take place in St Petersburg, Russia in September, 2008.

Curators Mika Hannula and Johan Sjöström, director pro tem of Göteborgs Konsthall, in Sweden, have invited Josefine Lyche and Martin Skauen to exhibit within Tomorrow Always Belongs to Us, a group exhibition with new Nordic paintings. The curators selected the works The Scent of a Woman series (2008) and What goes around comes around (2008) by Martin Skauen, and Dream Machine by Lyche. Lyche will also produce a large three-dimensional painting on a specially constructed wall. Among other participating artists are: Anastasia Ax, Louise Dorph, Henrik Eriksson and Christina Malbek. Tomorrow Always Belongs to Us takes place between 5 June and 28 September, 2008 at Göteborgs Konsthall, Sweden.

Jesper Alvaer is invited by Joanna Zielinska, Curator at Centre of Contemporary Art ’Znaki Czasu‘, in Torun, Poland to exhibit within the context of Sight of Times. The exhibition, which marks the opening of the new contemporary art centre, investigates the collecting phenomenon and its place in the contemporary artistic practice. For Sight of Times, Jesper Alvaer created the project Employer & Employees that directly intervenes with the employment process of the Centre. The exhibition runs from 14 June to October, 2008. Other participating artists are: Kutlug Ataman, Walerian Borowczyk, Oskar Dawicki, Wojtek Doroszuk , Lilla Khoor, Robert Ku śmirowski, Gosha Macuga, Anetta Mona Chisa and Lucia Tkacova, Janina Turek, Łukasz Skąpski,and Andrzej Urbanowicz.

Ann Lislegaard is invited by curator John Zeppetelli to exhibit within Re-Enactments at the DHC/Art Foundation for contemporary Art, in Montreal. Re-Enactments proposes film and spectacle imagery as a point of departure for a critical renewed aesthetic and political experience. The show presents works which re-act films, media spectacles, popular culture or even private moments of our daily routine. Ann Lislegaard contributes with the installation I-you-later-there that flightily re-acts moments of daily life. The exhibition that opened on 22 February will run until 25 May, 2008.

Snorre Hvamen, Ignas Krunglevicius and Dordi Strøm are invited by curator Julija Fomina to exhibit within Sound, an exhibition at the Contemporary Art Centre in Vilnius, Lithuania. Sound, which takes place between 6 June and 17 August, 2008, will exhibit works by young artists working with the sound medium. The exhibition is organized by the Contemporary Art Center alongside with the international exhibition of artist awarded with Arts Viva prize. The Norwegian trio will create four installations integrated into mundane objects in and around the Contemporary Art Centre. The installations are viewed as one piece where each one of them represents strategies for creating an invisible geography were the spectators can get access to new ways of perceiving the environment and their role in it. Among other artists exhibiting are Nico Dockx, Florian Hecker, Marcellus L. and Astrid Nippoldt.

Lina Viste Grønli will participate in the annual outdoor sculpture exhibition Partiche in the park surrounding Sølyst Castle in Jyderup, Denmark. The exhibition, initiated by The Art Work Shop of West Zealand (VAK), will show works of various international artists such as Anders Bonnesen, Richard Hughes, Eva Rothschild, Jacob Dahl Jürgensen, Tommy Støckel, Claus Egemose, Neil Zakiewicz, Gernot Wieland, Karen Land Hansen, Thomas Lindvig and Sofie Hesselholdt & Vibeke Mejlvang. For Pastiche, Lina Viste Grønli will present her new work Untitled (Super Form), a piece in shape of a cross that focus on the formal, sculptural and abstract qualities of this well know form.

Anniken Amundsen, Eva Schølberg and Gabriella Gøransson are invited by curator Lealey Miller to exhibit within CULTEX, a collaborative exchange of ideas, working methods and creative processes between six artists from Japan and Norway within textile. CULTEX aims to be an opportunity for artists from both countries to explore and strengthen knowledge about their respective textile heritage while developing a unique exhibition of new work. CULTEX will take place in October, 2008 at Seika University in Kyoto and Tama University in Tokyo, Japan.

Jørund Aase, Eli Glader and Nils-Tomas Økland will participate within the exhibition Bridge at Baku Contemporary Art Center in Baku, Azerbaijan. The exhibition curated by the artist Sabina Shikhlinskaya, from the collective ‘Labyrinth’ and by Dr. Dilara Vahabova, invited the Norwegian artists to an open dialogue, to build "bridges" connecting Azerbaijan and Norway. The show will take place between 22 and 27 April, 2008. The project is supported by 03–funding*.

Leander Djønne is invited to participate in a project initiated by the Norwegian theater director Torkil Sandsund and the Centre for Contemporary Arts Afghanistan in Kabul, Afghanistan. CCAA will host a project entitled Art Recipe Oslo — Kabul. The project aims to build a platform for artistic exchange between Norwegian artists and and the arts students in Kabul. For Art Recipe Oslo — Kabul, Leander Djønne will present a textual work entitled Devil in Disguise, which will be performed by students in Kabul and in Oslo in September 2008.

Independent Residencies and Research Abroad

Andreas Siqueland (1973) from the Norwegian artist group aiPotu was selected as one of ten candidates out of 260 to participate at the Le Pavilion – a residency program at Palais de Tokyo, Paris. The program is a research-based residency, where the artists themselves co-produce the course and invite visitors. The 8 months residency includes travels to Corsica and Japan, where the artists will be working on a project with invited artists Angela Detanico and Rafael Lain. As part of the Pavilion Residency, aiPotu participate in two exhibitions; Pavilion 7, which took place at Palais de Tokyo and, opening 13 June, 2008, Echo at the Transpalette in Bourges, France. A publication project for the program will be released in June. Coordinated by the Swiss artist Emmanuelle Antille, the publication is a special number of Sang Bleu, a tattoo magazine edited by the swiss designer Maxime Buechi. The residency period is from November, 2007 to June, 2008.

22 April, 2008

*03–funding: The purpose of the 03-funds as allocated by the MFA to OCA is to further develop cooperation and professional networking between OCA and the constituency of artists, independent cultural producers, and organizations that are located in designated countries or associated with 03-countries. This includes but is not limited to "professional research visits by cultural producers, artists, and curators", "short-term residencies for cultural producers and artists", "the development of seminars, conferences, art projects, workshops, etc. that focus on the further development of professional exchange and networking between and among countries", "project development and "pilot projects" on an international scale."