The OCA office and project space is closed for spring holiday in the period 18–25 April. We will return to office on 26 April

OCA provides financial support on a quarterly basis for international projects involving Norwegian artists and/or cultural producers. Applications are accepted from Norwegian artists, international artists living and working in Norway and non-profit organisations. Priority is given to exhibitions taking place in key international art institutions and project spaces. Support is also extended to solo and group exhibitions organised by international curators, as well as to Norwegian art professionals organising exhibitions and projects abroad. OCA has implemented an online system for applications for the International Support Programme. This system should be used for the 2011 second quarter application deadline. Click here for more information on International Support and the application process.

The Office for Contemporary Art Norway is responsible for the Norwegian participation in the Platform China Residency, Beijing, People's Republic of China; the International Studio Program Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany; the Residency Berlin Mitte, Berlin, Germany; the International Studio and Curatorial Program (ISCP), New York, NY, USA; the International Artist in Residency Programme at WIELS Contemporary Art Centre, Brussels, Belgium; Capacete, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, Brazil; and at 18 Street Arts Center, Los Angeles, CA, USA.

OCA accepts applications for these programmes. Click here for more information.

18 Street Arts Center — Application deadline: !!! 1 May 2011
In 2011, OCA introduces an open call for applications for a three-month studio residency from 1 October 2011 through 31 December 2011 at the International Artists in Residency programme at 18th Street Arts Center in the Santa Monica neighbourhood of Los Angeles, CA, USA. Only Norwegian citizens are eligible for this grant. Please note that the programme is not open to current art students. Applications will be assessed by an International Jury appointed by OCA and a representative from 18th Street Arts Center. Click here for more information.

OCA offers four residencies for curators, critics and artists in Berlin in Autumn 2011 and Spring 2012, from September 2011 until the end of April 2012, for 2 months each. Applicants must be Norwegian citizens, or live and work in Norway. The residency period will be allocated in discussion with the selected candidates following the Jury's selection. Curators and critics are especially encouraged to apply and their applications will be given priority. Please notice that the residency is not available for BA or MA students. The applications will be assessed by an International Jury appointed by OCA. More

Office for Contemporary Art Norway

announces

'The State of Things':
A Series of Public Lectures in Venice
June–November 2011

and

'Beyond Death: Viral Discontents and Contemporary Notions about AIDS':
An M.A. Teaching Programme at Iuav led by Bjarne Melgaard
February–May 2011

Norway's representation at the 54th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, will consist of two programmes, running consecutively throughout 2011: 'The State of Things', a series of lectures by internationally renowned intellectuals in various cultural and academic institutions in Venice, and 'Beyond Death: Viral Discontents and Contemporary Notions about AIDS', a teaching programme by artist Bjarne Melgaard at Università Iuav di Venezia.

Click here to see further details.

Exhibition dates: 9 March–25 June 2011
Public Hours: Wed, Fri and Sat 12–16:00, Thu 12–18:00

*The exhibition is closed during the Easter holiday 20–23 April

'Forms of Modern Life: From the Archives of Guttorm Guttormsgaard' is an exhibition taking as a starting point Guttorm Guttormsgaard's archives of printed materials and art objects. The exhibition considers the process by which the printed form becomes in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries a universal, egalitarian form of expression. The project explores how artists such as Thomas Bewick, Frans Masereel, Albert Jærn, Hannah Ryggen, Peder Balke and Lars Hertervigemployed specific graphic forms to address the cultural and political conditions of their time.

Click here for more information and for more photographs of the exhibition. 

Click here to listen to the 'Forms of Modern Life' audio guide.

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.

For more information on the International Visitor Programme Oslo click here.

Charles Esche
Director of the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven,
the Netherlands

Charles Esche (b.1962) is a curator and writer. He is Director of the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven and co-editor of Afterall Journal and Books, based at Central St.Martins College of Art and Design, London. He is also an advisor at the Rijksakademie, Amsterdam. In the last years, he curated major exhibitions including the 2nd and 3rd Riwaq Biennials, Palestine, 2007 and 2009; the 9th Istanbul Biennial 2005 with Vasif Kortun, Esra Sarigedik Öktem and November Paynter and the Gwangju Biennale 2002 in Korea with Hou Hanru and Song Wang Kyung. Before that he was co-curator of 'Intelligence – New British Art' at the Tate Gallery, London and 'Amateur – Variable Research Initiatives' at Konstmuseum and Konsthall, Göteborg, both in 2000.

From 2000–2004 he was Director of the Rooseum Center for Contemporary Art, Malmö, where he made solo exhibitions with Surasi Kusolwong, Nedko Solakov and Superflex a.o. and group shows including 'Baltic Babel' and 'Intentional Communities'. From 1998–2002 he organised the international art academic research project called 'protoacademy' at Edinburgh College of Art. From 1993–1997 he was Visual Arts Director at Tramway, Glasgow where he curated exhibitions by Elisabeth Ballet, Christine Borland, Roderick Buchanan Douglas Gordon, Jonathan Monk, Stephen Willats and Richard Wright as well as group shows such as Trust and The Unbelievable Truth.

A book of his selected writings, Modest Proposals, was published by Baglam Press, Istanbul in 2005. He has written for numerous catalogues and magazines including: The Netherlands, for example (ed.), JP Ringier, 2007; Collective Creativity, Fredericianum, Kassel, 2006; Artur Zmijewski, Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2005; Shifting Map, NAI, Rotterdam, 2004. He has written for art magazines such as Artforum, frieze, Parkett and Art Monthly among others.

Ida Ekblad to exhibit within
'Expanded Painting'
Directors: Giancarlo Politi and
Helena Kontova
Prague Biennale 5
Prague, Czech Republic 
19 May–11 September 2011

Ida Ekblad will be part of 'Expanded Painting', a macro section of the Prague Biennale, Prague, Czech Republic, which will open on 19 May and run until 11 September 2011. The focus of 'Expanded Painting' is abstraction and the current state of this genre through the works of artists based in the US, Portugal and Scandinavia.

Ida Ekblad to exhibit within 'ILLUMInations' at the
54th International Art Exhibition
Curator: Bice Curiger
La Biennale di Venezia
4 June–27 November 2011

Ida Ekblad is participating within the 54th International Art Exhibition titled 'ILLUMInations' with an installation of found objects, sculptures and paintings specifically designed for the exhibition. According to the curator, 'the term "nations" in "ILLUMInations" applies metaphorically to recent developments in the arts all over the world, where overlapping groups form collectives of people representing a wide variety of smaller, more local activities and mentalities'.

Gardar Eide Einarsson presents the solo exhibition 'Power Has a Fragrance' at Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden, from 16 February to 12 June 2011. The exhibition is a collaborative project between the Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo, Norway; the Reykjavik Art Museum, Reykjavik, Iceland; Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm; and Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel, Germany and is presented at each institution throughout 2010 and 2011. Together with co-curatorCamilla Larsson, director of Bonniers Konsthall Sara Arrhenius has commissioned Gardar Eide Einarsson to create a new piece of work especially for the exhibition in Stockholm. 'Power Has a Fragrance' explores fundamental structures of social conflicts in modern societies, presenting 'a catalogue of images of repression while mixing architectural, urban and art historical references with a specific emphasis on American post-war art, from abstract expressionism to Pop art'.

The Landesgalerie Linz, Austria, has invited Mette Tronvoll to present a solo exhibition from 17 February to 8 May 2011. Curated by Stefanie Hoch and Martin Hochleitner, curator and head of the Landesgalerie Linz respectively, 'Mette Tronvoll: Photographs 1994-2010' is the artist's first solo exhibition in Austria and a continuation of Landesgalerie's exhibition series on portrait photography, following exhibitions by August Sander and Fiona Tan among others. The photographic portraits on display were taken in the period 1994 to 2010 in Norway, USA, Japan and Mongolia among other locations.

Curator Johanne Nordby Wernø in collaboration with Åsa Mårtensson at Haninge konsthall, Haninge, Sweden, has invited Tori Wrånes to present the solo exhibition 'RUN'n JUMPS', from 2 April through 8 May 2011. The exhibition will present new works – photographs, sculptures, and video – elements from an ongoing project focusing on how the body is affected by its surrounding space. The video and photographs Artist in Studio display a daily ritual performed by the artist. In her studio she is spinning around, warming up her body, voice and the surroundings. According to Wernø the ritual serves as a 'solid basis of critical reality in a chaotic everyday life dominated by infinite chains of thoughts and whims'.

Curators Hyejin Jang and Claudia Pestana have invited Jan Christensen for a workshop and installation at the Artsonje Center, Seoul, South Korea, from 13 April to 31 August 2011. Christensen plans to present his ongoing project N0th1n6 1s f0r Fr€€, M0ther Fuck€r$ (2011), which invites the audience to 'engage in an improvised jam session' within an installation consisting of 'synthesizers, samplers, distorters and equipment that modulates and manipulates audio'.

Stein Rønning presents a solo exhibition at Gallery D.O.R., a new non-profit artist-run space in Brussels, Belgium, in the period 15 April to 15 May 2011. Curated by Sverre Gullesen, Gallery D.O.R. and the artist himself, the exhibitions displays four newly produced photographs. An actor, who repeats a spoken text to all of the visitors to the gallery, is also present. Rønning says that the project 'is about formal repetition and situational difference'. The spoken text also forms the basis of a small publication produced for the exhibition.

Yves Bernard, Artistic Director IMAL, has invited Hans Christian Gilje to hold a solo exhibition at IMAL — Center for Digital Cultures and Technology, Brussels, Belgium from 29 April to 29 May 2011. The exhibition 'Blink Brussels' is in a direct continuation of Gilje's Blink — a work developed for the artist's solo exhibition at Hordaland kunstsenter, Bergen, Norway in October 2009, and shown at Netherlands Institute of Media Art in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, as part of Sonic Acts in March 2010, as well as at ISEA2010, Dortmund, Germany, in August 2010, as part of the exhibition 'Trust'.

Curator Marie Nipper at the Aarhus Kunstmuseum ARoS, Aarhus, Denmark, has invited Fredrik Raddum to hold a solo exhibition from 2 April to 24 July 2011. Titled 'GET LOST....', the exhibition presents over 50 large and small sculptures, installations and neon works created in the last decade, as well as a range of new works, produced especially for the exhibition at ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum. An artist book documenting processes, sketches and presentations of the artworks is accompanying the exhibition.

Sparwasser HQ, Berlin, Germany presents 'MicroScenes', a project curated by Lise Nellemann. Starting on 1 February and continuing through 1 September 2011 the project presents a series of 'surveys of different artist communities based in Berlin'. Nellemann has invited Marianne Zamecznik and Anders Smebye to act as 'scouts' for the project in relation to the Norwegian Berlin-based community. They will be provided with studios in the periods of March and August 2011 respectively. Within the programme, Marianne Zamecznik will conduct research on exhibiting architecture for a public presentation. Anders Smebye, founder of Bastard project space, Oslo, Norway, will give a talk in Berlin in which he will explore the ethos of Bastard, its profile as a space of performances, screenings, happenings, discussions and other live events.

Anne Hjort Guttu has been invited to take part in the exhibition 'Making is Thinking', organised by Zoë Gray, curator at the Witte de With, Center for Contemporary Art , Rotterdam, the Nederlands. On view until 1 May 2011, 'Making is Thinking' raises the questions 'How are we to engage with materiality in our increasingly dematerialised world?', and 'How might thoughtful forms of making relate to our supposedly post-industrial society?' Within the exhibition Guttu will present the work Static Dynamic Tension Force Form Counterform. Other participating artists include Eva Rothschild,Hans Schabus, William J. O'Brien, Edgar Leciejewski and Koki Tanaka.

Yaffo 23, Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, Israel presents 'Happily Ever After'. Within the exhibition, curated by Maria Nicolacopoulou, Be Andr was invited to produce a new site-specific installation. The new work will question 'misconceived notions of happiness and feelings of artificial contentment achieved through superficial means such as social networks'. The exhibition will run from 15 March to 29 April 2011. Other participating artists include Silla Ka Tung,Pablo Ferrer and Angelbert Metoyer.

Curator Maria Lind presents 'Abstract Possible', a research project which aims at exploring 'notions of abstraction in contemporary artistic practice' at the Museo Tamayo, Mexico City, Mexico, from 26 March to 14 July 2011. Within 'Abstract Possible' Matias Faldbakken has been invited to present his work Double Cover Xerox 03 (2008) and to contribute with the text The The Situation Situation that will be part of the anthology accompanying the exhibition. The artist will also participate in the related discursive events, with a public talk on 'Economic Abstraction' on 8 April. Other artists in the exhibition include Doug Ashford, Claire Barclay, Goldin+Senneby, Wade Guyton and Mai-Thu Perret, Claudia Fernández and Jose León Cerrillo. The project is supported by 03–funding*.

Munan Øvrelid and Randi Nygård are participating in the exhibition series 'Kommunikation der Liebe', organised by Tokyo Wonder Site and the Tokyo Arts Council in the old Bethanien, building in Berlin, Germany. The participants in each of the exhibitions in the series will collaborate with a partner to produce a project about communication and love. According to Øvrelid and Nygård, their project will deal with 'the necessity of trust before an open communication potentially containing love can arise' by creating works that function 'as arguments in a conversation'. The exhibition is curated by Aisuke Kondo and Nobuhiko Murayama, Tokyo Wonder Site, Art Berlin, Germany, and can be seen in the period 2 to 22 April 2011. Other artists include Izumi Taro, Toshihiko Mitsuya, Nobukazu Takemura and Murai Keitetsu.

Samba Fall is exhibiting within ARS 11 at the Museum of Contemporary Art KIASMA in Helsinki, Finland, from 15 April to 27 November 2011. According to the curatorsPirkko Siitari, director, KIASMA, Arja Miller, chief curator, KIASMA and Jari-Pekka Vanhala, curator, ARS 11 attempts to 'shatter the narrow perception of African contemporary visual art as mere modern reiterations of ancient traditions'. Other artists participating in the exhibition include Georges Adeagbo, Sammy Baloji and Ursula Biemann, among others.

Ignas Krunglevicius will participate in a series of workshops, talks and an exhibition project titled 'Spheres of Power. Tension & Exchange', at kioskprojects, GlogauAIR, Berlin, Germany from 24 to 30 April 2011. Curated by Juste Kostikovaite and Viktorija Siaulyte, the workshop invites artists and cultural producers to discuss the characteristics that are attributed to the image of poverty and wealth in the public sphere; examine how concepts of poverty/wealth and power are interpreted, enacted or appropriated in artistic work; discuss the danger of reinforcing cliches when working with these definitions, and to present their works/research that are relevant to the theme.

Åsa Sonjasdotter is participating in 'Other Possible Worlds' at the Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst (NGBK), Berlin, Germany. According to the curators, the exhibition 'aims at opening a space for multiple projects suggesting and testing other realities of life from small-scale artistic tryouts to larger social experiments'. Sonjasdotter will present the project 'A Potato Perspective on the Relation Between Matter and Content; Part I; The Research', which she says 'looks into power and knowledge structures in relation to breeding' by focusing 'on the potato plant, since it has played a major role for the demographic and economic development in Europe since The Enlightenment'. 'Other Possible Worlds' is curated by Franziska Lesak, Berit Fischer, Moira Zoitl and Dorothee Albrecht, and is on view from 30 April to 13 June 2011.

Lotte Konow Lund has been invited to participate within the project 'Azerbaijan Art Stations' in Baku, Azerbaijan, from 2 to14 May 2011. 'Azerbaijan Art Stations' was initiated by Jahangir Selimkhanov, Arts & Culture Program Director of the Open Society Institute –AF, Azerbaijan, to create artworks dealing with communities in chosen locations across suburbs and villages around the city of Baku, Azerbaijan. Four cultural centres around Baku have invited international cultural producers to contribute to 'Azerbaijan Art Stations'. Lotte Konow Lund has been invited by Catrin Lundquist, Curator, Art & Learning Department, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden, to create a site-specific work for the Qala Cultural Centre. The project, titled 'The natural meeting point: Quala', will consist of two parts, an 'English Course', on a short term, as a way to understand Qala's people dream of becoming English interpretors, and 'Stage Carpet', on a long term, an item sewn with the women of the village'. Other participating artists in the project include Eva Koch, Anna Lindal and Johanna Hyrkas. The project is supported by 03–funding*.

Curator Geir Haraldseth will take part in a three-day international symposium from 4 May to 6 May 2011 at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), North Miami, FL, USA. The symposium will examine, according to MOCA associate curator Ruba Katrib, 'the boom of independent artistic activity in Latin America' by focusing 'on artist-run organisations from throughout the region that have emerged from the need for independent education for working artists'.

Martin Schibli, director of exhibitions, Kalmar Konstmuseum, Kalmar, Sweden, has invited Kjersti Andvig, Ivan Galuzin, Jumana Manna and Kristian Skylstad to participate in the group exhibition 'The Return of the Losers'. According to the curator many of the artists in the exhibition can be 'seen as provocative', but 'they have not taken the role of the victim; on the contrary, they are embracing the new world and its possibilities, and at the same time take a critical stand towards the old ideologies'. Other participating artists include Dahn Vo, Sören Thilo Funder, Klas Eriksson, Theis Wendt, Elin Magnusson and Tamar Guimaraes, among others. 'The Return of the Losers' is on view from 7 May to 28 August 2011.

Victor Mutelekesha and Samuel Ghitui are organising the project 'A Thin Line Between Art and Activism' at the Kuona Trust art space, Nairobi, Kenya, together with Danda Jaroljmek, director of the same institution. According to the artists, in this two-week festival, lasting from 8 to 23 May 2011, 'unhindered expression' will articulate 'more progressive, positive and fair approaches to social, political and economical issues that affect the voiceless and marginalised groups in society who are ironically the majority in numbers alone'. In addition to using the art space as a base of operations, the artists will produce public interventions in the streets and parks of Nairobi as a means to 'retrace the hotspots of violence' during the contested elections of 2008. The project is supported by 03–funding*.

Gardar Eide Einarsson, Tor Børresen, Snorre Ytterstad and Monica Winther are exhibiting within 'Nordic Darkness' at Kristinehamns Konstmuseum, Kristinehamn, Sweden in the period 14 May to 28 August 2011. According to the curators Staffan Boije af Gennäs and Johan Zetterquist, the exhibition looks at the development of 'music genres such as Drone and Black Metal' over the last decade as 'significant cultural exports from Norway and Sweden' as a means to investigate the 'common denominators' between the art and music scenes. Other participating artists include Daniel Andersson, Roger Andersson,Veronica Brovall, Stiina Saaristo and Banks Violette, among others.

Toril Johannessen is participating in the exhibition 'The End of Money' at Witte de With Centre for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. According to curator Juan Gaitán, the exhibition is a 'reflection on the different fears, hopes and expectations associated with the end of money as the primary standard of value', which also investigates 'the limits that the contemporary economic structure imposes on the imagination, and on the imagination as the cause of the present conception of the economy'. Other participating artists include Pierre Bismuth, Peter Fischli and David Weiss, Vishal Jugdeo Agnieszka Kurant and Lawrence Weiner, among others. 'The End of Money' is on view from 22 May to 7 August 2011

Tori Wrånes and Jana Winderen have been invited by curators Sanne Kofod Olsen, director, and Mette Truberg Jensen, curator, Museum of Contemporary Art, Roskilde, Denmark to participate within the ACTS – Festival for Performative Arts on 28 and 29 May 2011. The two-day festival with an international programme that takes place in and around the museum as well as the city centre of Roskilde. Wrånes and Winderen will each develop new performances specifically for the festival. Other participating artists include Elisabet Apelmo & Marit Lindberg, Jörn J. Burmester, Lesley Flanigan, Henrik Plenge Jakobsen and Jane Jin Kaisen, among others.

0047 have invited Turkish artist Can Altay to participate in one of five thirty-six hour residencies as part of the project 'Space Station' implemented in the period 25 March to5 June 2011. Conceived in collaboration with nOffice (based in Berlin, Germany and London, UK), 'Space Station' invites artists to work within a specifically designed 'Space Enabler' that incorporates different functional elements and reconfigures 0047's gallery space. Istanbul-based artist Can Altay is interested in unorthodox appropriations of the built environment. The curators of 'Space Station' are Markus Miessen, Ralf Pflugfelderand Magnus Nilsson for nOffice and Suzana Martins for 0047. 
The project is supported by 03–funding*.

*03–funding: The purpose of the 03–funds, as allocated by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to OCA, is to further develop cooperation and professional networking between OCA and the constituency of artists, independent cultural producers and organisations 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, and 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.

The Piet Zwart Institute currently accepts applications for their Master of Fine Art programme at the Willem de Kooning Academy Rotterdam University. The two-year Master programme is taught in English and provides an international platform on which artists can develop their practices through independent studio work as well as a lively dialogue with artists, curators and theorists from a diversity of disciplines: art, theatre, literature, philosophy, cinema, and others. Click here for further details.

The Watermill Center, NY, USA, is now accepting applications for its autumn 2011 / spring 2012 Residency Program for multi-disciplinary international artists. Each residency varies in length according to artists' and project needs, and generally lasts from one to four weeks. In addition to creating and developing their own work, artists share their creative process at Watermill with the public through open rehearsals, workshops, and/or artist talks. Application deadline: 31 May 2011. Visit the Watermill Center website for further information.

The Henry Moore Institute invites applications for a two-year fellowship, beginning in autumn 2011. Based at the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds, UK, the focus of the Fellow's research should be the study of pre-twentieth-century sculpture in the expanded field, paying particular attention to the ways in which history is engaged with in the present. Application deadline:30 June 2011. For more information and full application details visit the Henry Moore Institute

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