Click here for information on the application process.

OCA provides financial support on a quarterly basis for international projects including Norwegian artists and/or cultural producers. This includes extending support to group or single artist exhibitions initiated by international institutions and international curators. International artists who have permanent residence in Norway may also apply for support. The objective is to foster innovative artistic production, expression and the creative process by encouraging and supporting projects that support, exhibit and interpret a broad spectrum of contemporary artistic practices. OCA's funding for International Support is provided by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

03–funding* is a support program underwritten by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for enhancing collaboration in the contemporary art field with professional artists in countries designated by the MFA. This programme is also administered by OCA.

Recipients from the February grants review for International Support is announced.
The recipients are listed here.

For any questions regarding the application procedures, please contact Velaug Bollingmo at OCA at vb@oca.no.

Established in 2007 at Sveaborg in Helsinki, the Nordic Culture Point aims to develop Nordic cultural co–operation, providing information, consultancy, as well as funding for professionals within the field of culture. Next deadline is 30 April, 2008 for:
Module for Mobility Funding: The module aims to fund Nordic mobility for individuals working in all forms of art and culture in the Nordic region.
Module for Network Funding: This Module provides funding within the Nordic countries for network building.
Further information on kknord.or

The Office for Contemporary Art Norway is responsible for the Norwegian participation in the International Studio Program Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, the International Studio and Curatorial Program (ISCP), New York City and the Platform Garanti Istanbul Residency Program. New residency programs include the Platform China Residency in Beijing and the Residency Berlin Mitte.

In September–October and November–December 2008, OCA offers two successive residencies for Norwegian curators, critics, and artists in Berlin Mitte. The residency provides a fully equipped apartment located at Kunstwerke Institute for Contemporary Art in Mitte. OCA also provides a travel grant up to NOK 4000 in addition to the residency. Curators and critics are especially encouraged to apply and their applications will be considered a priority.

Click here for information on the application process.

For any questions regarding the process, please contact Velaug Bollingmo at OCA at vb@oca.no.

Upcoming Resident 2008/2009:

At the core of Ane Graff's work is the poetics of scientific research. Last years exhibition Fall Into Matter at STANDARD (Oslo) saw Graff widening her range of medias, adding both sculptures and photographic works to her signature-styled pencil drawings. Despite their formal differences these works shared a clear interest in the still life as a genre and the scientific principle of verification. Present in Graffs work is a belief in observational evidence, and a commitment to a positivism doubtlessly stating that the world and its phenomenons can be understood through collection, observation and verification. Ane Graff lives and works in Oslo, Norway.

Upcoming Resident 2008/2009:

Are Mokkelbost lives and works in Oslo. He is member of the bands KILLL, Single Unit and ARM. Are Mokkelbosts work is influenced by the methodology of music and design, two fields he has been constantly involved in. Limitations in the form of formal restraints and an imaginary audience group are defined. This marks the beginning of a series of synthetic genres to be explored. Are Mokkelbost subscribes to these parallel and contrasting image worlds on a long term basis, spending most of the time finding visual solutions to compensate for conceptual leaps and ad hoc constructions. This moves the focus from artistic authorship to image systems and their criteria. His last body of work, ION, is a collage image world based on visual transformation of fashion magazine photography to symbolic opposites with the aid of only scissors and glue. ION is defined as a teenage image world. Several ION collages will be shown at 0047 in Oslo from 25 April 2008, at A Week Of Kindness, a split show with Elise Storsveen.

Resident April–May 2008

Stian Ådlandsvik (b. 1981) is an Oslo-based artist working with sculptures and photography. Ådlandsvik's projects often map up unusual connections in social, political and economical administration and he relates this to questions conserning national identity. Working with estrangement and reorganization of objects, he is blurring the boundaries between reality and fiction. In his latest project he collaborated on making a subjective analysis of the development of Kuala Lumpur, focusing on the generic replacements of the city's identity, history and culture. He holds a degree from HfBK in Hamburg and the National Academy of Fine Arts in Oslo.

Resident April–May 2008

Ane Hjort Guttu (b. 1971) lives and works in Oslo, Norway. She is interested in the inherent ideology of images, non-figurative form as representation of political issues and the fine line between art and everyday objects. Her projects investigate and question representation strategies and power structures through analytical essays, image collections, formalist sculptures or staged photography.

Upcoming Resident May 2008

Arve Rød (b. 1967) is an artist and critic based in Oslo, Norway. Although inspired by the works of conceptual artists, Arve Rød does not describe his work as conceptual. The artist chooses the words "institutional evaluation" or "negotiation". He has exhibited at Galleri F15, Moss, Norway (2006), UKS Biennial, Oslo, Norway (2004) and Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany (2004). In 2004, he was the Co-editor of the Norwegian Art Yearbook. As a freelance critic, he was written forKunstkritikk.no, Billedkunst, Morgenbladet, Flash Art International, Klassekampen and currently writes art reviews for the newspaper Dagens Næringsliv.

Week 17

Q's and A's: Molly Nesbit with Elmgreen & Dragset

Thursday, 24 April, 19:00

25 Broadway, NYC

Elmgreen & Dragset pursue a conscious cultural position that abstracts from issues of power, sex, and marginalized or subcultural behavioural patterns in an alignment with architectonics and style – as ways of emphasizing the "private" as a reflection of the particular, singular, and non-generic in exploring social subject matters of class, privilege, gender, nationality. Molly Nesbit joins artists Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset in this first time public presentation in New York City approaching their practice and production, as well as their role as theatre directors, assemblers, editors, and now co-curators/artists of both the Danish and Nordic Pavilions for the upcoming Venice Biennale in 2009. This event has been made possible with the support of Danish Arts Council's Committee for International Visual Arts and the Office for Contemporary Art Norway. R.S.V.P. requested to nyc@oca.no.

Michael Elmgreen (b. 1961) and Ingar Dragset (b. 1969) live and work in Berlin and have been collaborating since 1995. Through the last decade, they have been showing their works in numerous institutions including Tate Modern, Serpentine Gallery, MCA Chicago, New Museum, Musée d'Art moderne de la Ville de Paris, Hamburger Bahnhof, MMK Frankfurt, Louisiana Museum, Moderna Museet, Bergen Kunsthall and Kunsthalle Zürich. The duo will be curating both the Danish Pavilion and the Nordic Pavilion for the Venice Biennial, in 2009.

Molly Nesbit is a Professor of Art History at Vassar College and a contributing editor of Artforum. Her books include Atget's Seven Albums (Yale University Press, 1992) and Their Common Sense (Black Dog, 2000). With Hans Ulrich Obrist and Rirkrit Tiravanija she has been organizing "Utopia Station", an ongoing book, exhibition, seminar, website and street project. She is currently the J. Kirk T. Varnedoe Visiting Professor at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University

The International Studio Programme Oslo is available for international artists and curators by invitation for a stay from two weeks up to six months, independently or in connection with research in Norway. The programme comprises three studios located in the city centre of Oslo.

Enrico David

Born in Italy, lives and works in London, UK

The Italian born Enrico David is based in London, and over the last decade, has quietly established a reputation as one of Britain's most original artists. His solo exhibition recently held at the ICA in London demonstrated some of the ongoing strands within his work, which borrows from craft and design techniques and often features stylised figures staged within erotic or tragic-comic scenarios. According to Marta Kuzma in her listing in Best of 2007 in December's Artforum, "Enrico David is motivated by a kind of unmediated pleasure principle, transposing his obsession with treating ‘people as objects’, and his abject perversions like ‘rubbing himself against the effigy of trustworthiness’ into meticulously rendered illustrations, assemblages, and room-size installations. As the artist himself describes this soulful recollection of personal experience: "From the silent spectacle to its description, from the described scene to the moral interpretation of intentions and acts, from the interpreted act to the 'anecdote'."

The Office for Contemporary Art Norway runs an International Visitor Programme to support international curators and cultural producers in their research in Norway for upcoming exhibitions and projects.

Jonathan Watkins

Director Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK

Jonathan Watkins was Artistic Director of the Biennale of Sydney 1998. He was guest curator for Quotidiana, Castello di Rivoli, Turin (1999–2000), Europarte, La Biennale di Venezia (June 1997), Milano Europa 2000, Palazzo di Triennale, Milan (November 2000), Facts of Life, an exhibition of contemporary Japanese art at the Hayward Gallery, London (Autumn 2001), and Days Like These, the Tate Triennial exhibition of contemporary British art (London 2003). He was on the curatorial team for the Shanghai Biennale (September 2006) and the Sharjah Biennale (April 2007). Jonathan Watkins has written extensively on contemporary art, and recently was the author of a Phaidon monograph on the Japanese artist On Kawara.

Katerina Gregos

Curator of Contour 2009, Mechelen, Belgium

Born in Athens, Greece, Katerina Gregos is a curator and writer based in Brussels, Belgium. She is currently curator ofContour 2009, 4th biennial for video art. During 2006 and 2007 she was the artistic director of Argos — Centre for Art & Media, in Brussels. Previously she was founding director of the Deste Foundation's Centre for Contemporary Art in Athens (1997–2003). At Argos, Gregos organised a number of exhibitions, lectures and events including, among others, the group exhibition Being in Brussels, solo shows of Clemens von Wedemeyer & Maya Schweizer, the Otolith Group, Lonnie van Brummelen & Siebren de Haan (with Lawrence Weiner), and the Dutch architects MVRDV. In 2006, Gregos was the curator of the 6th E V+ A biennial in Ireland and co–curator of the Project Rooms at Artissima art fair, Turin. Gregos is a regular contributor to Contemporary and Flash Art International, as well as other international art periodicals.

Frank Lubbers

Artistic Director of Museum De Wieger, Deurne, The Netherlands

Frank Lubbers is an international exhibition organiser and art advisor based in Brussels. From 1983 to 1989, he was curator at the Fodor Museum, a department of the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. Thereafter he worked as Deputy Director and Chief Curator at the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven until 2006. Lubbers has organised exhibitions of numerous international contemporary artists such as Marcel Broodthaers, Rodney Graham, James Coleman, Mike Kelley, David Claerbout, Matt Mullican, Marlene Dumas, Rob Scholte, René Daniëls and Aernout Mik. Since 2006, he is the artistic director of Museum De Wieger in Deurne, the Netherlands, and currently he is co–organiser of NIET NORMAAL (Not Normal, Difference on Display) a large international contemporary art exhibition which will take place in Amsterdam in 2009. His most recent exhibition was From 60 to 7 – The Politics of the "private", which he curated in 2007 for the Henie Onstad Art Centre in Oslo, Norway.

Peter Eleey

Curator, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN, USA, born in US

Peter Eleey is Curator at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, where he is currently organizing an exhibition surveying the visual art of the dancer and choreographer Trisha Brown. Prior to joining the Walker, he was Curator & Producer at Creative Time in New York, where he curated a wide range of multidisciplinary programs including exhibitions, projects and commissions with Mike Nelson, Cai Guo-Qiang, Jenny Holzer, William Forsythe, Doug Aitken, Jim Hodges, Shirazeh Houshiary and Haluk Akakçe, among others.

Ivo Mesquita

Curator of the 2008 São Paulo Biennial, born in Brazil, lives and works between São Paulo, Brazil, and Rhinebeck, NY, USA

Ivo Mesquita is a Brazilian curator and, since 1996 Visiting Professor at the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, NY, USA. He is the curator for the 2008 São Paulo biennial and since 2006, the Chief Curator at Pinacoteca do Estado, in São Paulo. Ivo Mesquita was the Researcher, Assistant Curator (1980–88), and the Artistic Director (1999–2000) for the Fundação Bienal de São Paulo; Artistic Director, Museu de Arte Moderna, São Paulo (2001–02). Among the exhibitions curated by Ivo Mesquita are Jorge Guinle, 20th São Paulo Bienal (1989); Desire in the Academy, 1847–1916, Pinacoteca do Estado, São Paulo (1991); Cartographies, Winnipeg Art Gallery, Canada (1993); Daniel Senise: The Enlightening Gaze, MARCO, Monterrey, Mexico (1994); Body and Space, Museu de Arte de São Paulo (1995);Stills: works from the Marielouise Hessel Collection, CCS-Bard College, (1997); Alair Gomes, fotógrafo, Museu da Imagem e do Som, São Paulo (1999); Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle: Climate, Fundación, "la Caixa", Madrid, Spain (2003); Voyage to Dakar: Three artists from the Américas, VI Dakar Biennale — DakArt 2004;, Senegal Pablo Siquier, Palácio Velazquez/Museo Reina Sofia Madrid, (2005). Co-curator, Roteiros, 24th São Paulo Bienal (1998); inSITE97 and inSITE2000, San Diego, CA, USA/Tijuana, Mexico; and F[r]icciones, Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid (2000). Publications include Leonilson: use é lindo, eu garanto (1997/2006), Daniel Senise: ela que não está (1998), F[r]icciones (with Adriano Pedrosa, 2001), Eliane Prolik: Noutro Lugar (2005) and catalogue essays.

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 titleWhen 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 theApocalypse series realized by Pushwagner in the 1980s and 1990s and take place at the Schinkel Pavillon between 11 and27 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 toBiennale 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 contactinfo@biennaledakar.org. The project is supported by 03–funding*.

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 byLia 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 Bræinto 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 invitedKathrin 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 opened30 March and will run until 8 June, 2008.

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 andCamilla 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 Gronlundand 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 inSeptember, 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, andDream 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 toOctober, 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. ForPastiche, 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 Göransson 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 byDr. 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 theCentre 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. ForArt 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.

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.

Elmgreen & Dragset's opera L'amour de loin (Love from afar) will be the opening event of this year's Bergen International Festival. L'amour de loin is said to be a step for opera into the new millennium, a fascinating work with multiple points for interpretations. The Norwegian-Swedish visual artist duo Ingrid Book and Carina Hedén are the Festival Artists for 2008. Bergen Kunsthall will exhibit Books & Hedén's photographs documentation of the Rena Military Base. Bergen International Festival, which takes place between 21 May and 4 June, 2008 will showcase 160 art events in all its guises: music, literature, theatre, dance, and visual art from the Nordic and Baltic countries. For tickets and more information, please visit the Bergen International Festival website.

Lofoten International Art Festival (LIAF) as curated by Taru Elfving and Rickard Borgström, will open 14 June and run through 7 September, 2008. This year's festival will have an emphasis on site-specificity and commissioned works, aiming to create a dialogue around the questions of sustainable future and expanded community. The festival will also present an open call video program, co-curated with Maria Bustnes.

April marks the release by Dundee Contemporary Arts, Scotland of a catalogue on Camilla Løw, entitled Straight Letters. Designed by Robert Johnson with new texts by Michael Archer and Dr. Sarah Lowndes, the catalogue documents Camilla Løw's important works of the last five years, as well as the exhibition Straight Letters, which recently took place at Dundee Contemporary Arts and that will be shown at Pier Arts Centre, Orkney, UK between 20 June and 6 September, 2008.

Lene Berg released the book Stalin by Picasso, as part of a project entitled Stalin by Picasso or Portrait of Woman With a Moustache, which also consists of a film and 80 collages. Stalin by Picasso's point of departure is an old dispute about Picasso's portrait of Stalin with a moustache and feminine features. For the project, the artist had designed a banner with the pictures of Picasso and Stalin, to be hung on the façade of the People's Theater Building in Oslo. The book's preface is written by Caroline Ugelstad.

The Spring 2008 issue of Afterall 17 was launched in late January. The journal opens with an essay by OCA Director Marta Kuzma, discussing the diverse effects of the sexual liberation movement within the cultural and political context during the late 1960s and '70s, in Scandinavia and USA. The essay continues with the analysis of several artistic positions that either refer directly to the political ideals of that time or illuminate a particular aspect of that moment — for example, in terms of sexual mores and their representation, politics and its relationship to activism or history and the way it determines the present. Artist profiles within the issue include also that of Bjarne Melgaard with essays by Ina Blom and Bart De Baere. Afterall is co-published by Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, London and California Institute of Arts, Los Angeles, in association with MuHKA, Antwerp. The publication is distributed in Norway at Torpedo bookstore.

Located in Banff National Park, Banff, Alberta, Canada, the Banff Centre provides professional career development for artists and cultural leaders in performing, literary, new media, and visual arts. The Visual Arts Thematic Residencies bring together artists that share common interests through out their works. The themes and deadlines are: Cosmic Ray Research, Program dates: September 15, 2008 to October 31, 2008, Application deadline: May 9, 2008; Reverse Pedagogy, Program dates: November 10, 2008 to December 05, 2008, Application deadline: May 23, 2008; Archive Restored, Program dates: January 05, 2009 to February 20, 2009, Application deadline: July 25, 2008. For details, please visit The Banff Centre website.

The Internationale Gesellschaft der Bildenden Künste (IGBK) invites European artist associations and networks that have their own exhibition spaces and run international exchange projects to participate in Art Swap Europe, an open forum for presentations of concepts and spaces, for discussions and face-to-face meetings. Initiated by Werner Schaub, in cooperation with the Akademie der Künste, Art Swap Europe will take place in Berlin on 11 and 12 October, 2008. Deadline for registration is 31 May, 2008 at http://artswap-europe.eu.

Helsinki International Curatorial Programme currently offers curatorial residencies in Helsinki for international visual arts curators. The programme is a collaboration between HIAP — Helsinki International Artist-in-residence Programme and FRAME — Finnish Fund for Art Exchange. Applications should be received by 1 May, 2008. For further information, please see FRAME's website www.frame-fund.fi or www.hiap.fi.

16 June, 2008 is the deadline for applications to the European Course of Contemporary Art Curators (CECAC). Curated by Roberto Pinto and Gabi Scardi, CECAC offers young European curators the opportunity to work side by side with an internationally renowned Visiting Professor as well as an occasion to establish new connections between young operators from different European countries, set up a working platform that may enable the participants to develop further curatorial projects, and encourage international circulation of cultural initiatives. Charles Esche is the Visiting Professor of the 2008 edition and Nedko Solakov the visiting artist. The European Course of Contemporary Art Curators will take place between 9and 19 October, 2008 in Milan, Italy. More information can be found at fondazioneratti.org and provincia.milano.it/cultura.

30 may, 2008 is the deadline for applications for Book Work's open submission Series, Semina (2008). Commissioned and edited by artist and writer Stewart Home, the series will publish nine books, six of which will be selected from open submission by artists and writers interested in experimental prose fiction, drawing inspiration from art and literature. The selection from open submissions will be made by Stewart Home and Book Works. The series is designed by Fraser Muggeridge studio. Contact gavin@bookworks.org.uk or visit bookworks.org.uk for more information.

Ecole du Magasin calls for applications for the 2008/2009 session 18. Founded in 1987, the Ecole du Magasin is aimed to train professional exhibition curators. The program is specialized in the coordination of artistic projects related to the exhibition, and is aimed for candidates involved in the professional contemporary art world. The Ecole du Magasin is conceived as a research and production program, developed independently from any academic frame. Teachings are based on the elaboration and production of a project on a ten months term. The deadline for applications is 30 June, 2008 and application files can be downloaded at www.ecoledumagasin.com.

Heidi Sellevold, a Programme Associate at OCA since 2004, will be leaving her position to pursue other career options in the future. For those wishing to contact her — her private email contact information is now: heidi.sellevold@getmail.no. We wish her much success in the future and appreciate her contributions to OCA in the past!

*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."

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