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 Ministry of Foreign Affairs. For any questions regarding the procedures, please contact Velaug Bollingmo at OCA at vb@oca.no.

03–funding* is a support program underwritten by the 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.

Please note that the results of the 15 February application will be announced by mid April, 2008. Next application deadline for International Support is 15 May, 2008.

Click here for information on the application process.

Pushwagner and Lars Laumann to be included within the upcoming 5th berlin biennial for contemporary art, Berlin, Germany

Curatorial team: Adam Szymczyk and Elena Filipovic
Open: 5 April–15 June, 2008
Press Conference: 3 April, 11:00
Press Preview: 3 April, 11:00–22:00
Professional Preview: 4 April, 9:00–17:00

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. Pushwagner will show his pictorial novelSoft City (1969–1975), which gives an account of one day in the life of 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. Laumann has been involved in designing the special structure that will be built on the wasteland area of Skulpturenpark Berlin_Zentrum to screen the film. Lars Laumann will also curate 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 Schinkel Pavillon will be inaugurated on March 20, two weeks before the official opening of the biennial and continues until June 29, two weeks after it officially ends on 15 June. The solo presentation of Pushwagner curated by Lars Laumann will open on 10 April, 2008 at the Schinkel Pavillon at 19:00.

For further information and the accreditation form for the press conference and the professional preview can be downloaded here on the biennial website.

Week 14

Speakers: Raqs Media Collective

Subject: Kinetic Contemplation

Date: Wednesday, 2 April, 2008 Time: 19:00

ISP Oslo Studio 4 Wergelandsveien 17, Oslo

Raqs Media Collective (est. 1991) was founded by Jeebesh Bagchi, Monica Narula and Shuddhabrata Sengupta. As a collective, it has been described as "artists, media practitioners, curators, researchers, editors and catalysts of cultural processes." Raqs' work, which has been exhibited widely in major international spaces and events, is located squarely along the intersections of contemporary art, historical inquiry, philosophical speculation, research and theory — often taking the form of installations, online and offline media objects, performances and encounters. The members of RMC live and work in Delhi, based at Sarai, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, an initiative they co–founded in 2000. Jeebesh Bagchi, Monica Narula and Shuddhabrata Sengupta are also members of the editorial collective of the Sarai Reader series. In this presentation ”Kinetic Contemplation“ Raqs will open out their working process and methods and discuss some of their ongoing projects, including their curation of Manifesta 07.

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.

Raqs Media Collective (Established 1991), India

Raqs Media Collective (Monica Narula (born 1969), Jeebesh Bagchi (born 1965), Shuddhabrata Sengupta (born 1968)) has been variously described as "artists, media practitioners, curators, researchers, editors and catalysts of cultural processes. Their work, which has been exhibited widely in major international spaces and events, locates them squarely along the intersections of contemporary art, historical enquiry, philosophical speculation, research and theory — often taking the form of installations, online and offline media objects, performances and encounters. They live and work in Delhi, based at Sarai, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, an initiative they co–founded in 2000. They are members of the editorial collective of the Sarai Reader series. www.raqsmediacollective.ne.

Enrico David, Italy

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 Program to support international curators and cultural producers in their research in Norway for upcoming exhibitions and projects.

Jonathan Watkins

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), andDays 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.

Ivo Mesquita

Ivo Mesquita is a Brazilian curator and, since 1996 Visiting Professor at the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College. 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, 20^th São Paulo Bienal (1989); Desire in the Academy, 1847–1916, Pinacoteca do Estado, São Paulo (1991); Cartographies, Winnipeg Art Gallery (1993); Daniel Senise: The Enlightening Gaze, MARCO, Monterrey (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, (2003); Voyage to Dakar: Three artists from the Américas, VI Dakar Biennale — DakArt 2004; Pablo Siquier, Palácio Velazquez/Museo Reina Sofia Madrid, (2005). Co-curator, Roteiros, 24th São Paulo Bienal (1998); inSITE97 and inSITE2000, San Diego/Tijuana; 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. Lives and works between São Paulo and Rhinebeck, NY.

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

Upcoming Resident April–May 2008: Ane Hjort Guttu (Artist)

Ane Hjort Guttu (b. 1971) lives and works in Oslo, Norway. She is interested in the inherent ideology of images, non-figurative form as representations 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. Recent exhibitions include a solo show at Young Artists' Society (UKS), Oslo; Norwegian Sculpture Biennial, Vigelandsmuseet, and Shedhalle, in Zürich.

Upcoming Resident April–May 2008: Stian Ådlandsvik

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. He graduated in 2006.

Closed Session is a short term residency in NYC offered to individual artists at the invitation of the Office for Contemporary Art Norway. The purpose of Closed Session is to provide invited artists with the opportunity to gain a broader knowledge of other artist practices, to extend one's network of associations, and to enter into a dialogue with other curators, artists and professionals within a one week period. During the artist's stay, meetings and critiques are coordinated by [OCA, NYC]. Closed Session is a short term residency held at minimum once per semester.

Closed Session April 2008: Arve Rød

Arve Rød (b. 1967) is an artist and critic based in Oslo. 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 shown 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 for Kunstkritikk.no, Billedkunst, Morgenbladet, Flash Art International, Klassekampen and currently writes art reviews for the newspaper Dagens Næringsliv.

Gardar Eide Einarsson participates in the Whitney Biennial 2008, NY, USA
Curators: Shamim Momim and Henriette Huldisch
Opened on 6 March and will run through 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 included 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.
Read NY Times' article on the biennial here.

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 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. 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 turn within the private realm and will enact them into performance that will be shot in the desert. The final piece will be a film/sound installation". Pushwagner will showKlaxton 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.

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 will be showing the videoOld Man Going Up and Down a Staircase where the pregnant artist comes down the stairs dressed as an old man. 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 contactinfo@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 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 to 2 November, 2008
Professional preview: July 17 and Friday July 18 from 11:00 to 19:00
Press Conference and the official opening: July 19

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 — Raqs Media Collective in Bolzano, Anselm Franke and Hila Peleg in Trento, and Adam Budak in Rovereto. The curators will collaborate on the fourth venue within the fortress of Fortezza. From Manifesta's press release: "Manifesta 7 will open up the region and, with its wide variety of urban and cultural networks, investigate, develop, and reflect upon new aspects of contemporary art within a European context. In the process, it will strive to confront a local, national and international audience with new forms of artistic expression and proposals for dealing with the issue of art in public spaces."

Please refer to www.manifesta7.it for further information and press accreditation.

Camilla Løw at Dundee Contemporary Arts
Curated by DCA's Deputy Director Judith Winter
1 February–31 March, 2008

Straight Letters marks the first solo exhibition by the Norwegian artist Camilla Løw which opened at Dundee Contemporary Arts in Scotland in February 2008. From Straight Letters' press release: "Løw's sculptures transcend traditional modes of display — works are clustered, stacked, suspended or leant against the wall. They combine a seemingly casual presentation with refined, tightly crafted and considered use of colour, surface and form. Camilla's playful yet rigorous response to the legacies of Constructivism and Minimalism make for enigmatic geometric riddles that transform the DCA space."

Read review from Scotsman.com here.

Per Blarclay, Chambres d'huile at Centre de Création Contemporaine, Tours, France
Curated by Alain Julien-Laferrière, director of the Centre de Création Contemporaine
8 March–1 June, 2008

Per Barclay's exhibition at Centre de Création Contemporaine 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 opening it to the breathtaking depth of a virtual elsewhere. The exhibition will gather 15 large photographs, from the first realized in 1989 to the more recent ones, realized in Chinon at the CCC's invitation (2006) and at the Fondation Merz (2007). The exhibition will also be shown at the Fondation Merz in Turin, Italy from July to October, 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 that evoke hybrid spaces reflecting upon the artist's own fantasies and confessions rendered in morphed interiors.

Karl Ingar Røys participates in a solo project entitled Would-be Immigrants Must Watch Kiss Video at the Het Wilde Weten in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. The exhibition curated by Kim Bouvy opened on 17 January and will run through 15 April, 2008. The artist is invited by Kim Bouvy from Het Wilde Weten to discuss the initiative of the Dutch Immigrant Authorities to use video-tests in order to implement common cultural reference points for people who wish to settle in Holland. This project is a continuation of Røys' earlier work entitled Erna's Video whereby the artist refers to the documentary format to focus on how media is politically used by Norwegian politicians with the purpose to dissuade asylum seekers from entering into the country.

Olav Christopher Jenssen, At times at Haus am Waldsee, Berlin
30 March–8 June, 2008
Curated by Dr. Katja Blomberg, Artistic director of Haus am Waldsee
For his first solo show in Berlin, Olav Christopher Jenssen will be showing the full spectrum of his works: large scale paintings, small "watercolours, drawings, and installations made of aluminium, clay and plaster. Working with layers, Jenssen builds images along abstract planar structures, working with an introspective, abstract network of thought".

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 drawings and video works by Nedreaas.

Sissel Tolaas and Verdensteatret have been invited to exhibit withinSynthetic 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". 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*.

Unni Gjertsen was invited by Corinne Diserens, Director at MUSEION — Modern and Contemporary Art Museum in Bolzano, and OCA IVP visitor in November last year, to select films by Mai Zetterling for the opening exhibition of MUSEION's new building. The show, entitled Peripheral Look and Collective Body will open on 24 May and close on 21 September, 2008. Peripheral Look and Collective Body discusses the question of the collective bodies in contemporary visual art considering the tight relationship with architecture and performance — dance, in particular.

Stefan Schröder participates in Über Tage_07, which is a site specific project, reflecting urban landscape development and site specific interventions after several decades of coalmining activities in the former East-German region of Sachsen. The project opened 1 September, 2007, and will expand into the summer of 2008. The project is curated by Susanne Altmann.

Gardar Eide Einarsson participates in the exhibition Come, come, come into my world curated by Andrew Renton that runs from 16 November, 2007 through 31 August, 2008 at the Ellipse Foundation Contemporary Art Collection in Cascais in Portugal. The show is a selection of unseen works and new acquisitions from the Ellipse Foundation. Other participating artists are: Aleksandra Mir, Anri Sala, Dash Snow, Douglas Gordon, Erwin Wurm, Francis Alÿs, Franz West, Gabriel Orozco, Glenn Ligon, Haim Steinbach, Hamish Fulton, Jack Pierson, João Onofre, João Pedro Vale, John Bock, John Stezaker, Joseph Kosuth, Jimmie Durham, Mike Kelley, Miroslaw Balka, Muntean & Rosenblum, Olafur Eliasson, Raymond Pettibon, Rodney Graham and Thomas Schütte.

Ann Lislegaard was invited by curator John Zeppetelli to participate in the exhibition 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 reacts moments of daily life. The exhibition that opened on 22 February will run until 25 May, 2008.

At the Camden Arts Centre, from 31 March to 6 April 2008, Anne Karin Dolven will be screening Tilts only (his shirt), a mute 16 mm film projection. Through optical distortions, a flimsy surface of a man's shirts becomes at once familiar and strange, intimate and distance, creating and exploring a sense of longing.

Between 26 March and 19 April 2008, Open Space — Zentrum für Kunstprojekte is showing On Xenophobia Redux, curated by Anne Brit Rage and David Rych. The xeno.no project aims to engage as an online platform and database for contemporary cultural reflection on xenophobic tendencies, understood here as a phenomenon that takes on different faces, agendas and forms of establishment. With a growing list of participating artists, the site will function as an online database of theory and visual and time-based art. During the program at Open Space, a presentation of the project will take place, as well as series of lectures and workshops.

Invited by Alix Dionot-Morani, Head of Production and Coordination, Andreas Siqueland (1973) (aiPotu) was selected as one of ten candidates out of 260 to participate at the Pavilion Residency Program at Palais de Tokyo, Paris. The program is a crossing between a residency program and an advanced visual arts course. The 8 months residency includes travels to Tokyo and Corsica and three exhibitions, among them Pavllion 7, at Palais the Tokyo between 12 and 16 March, 2008 and Echo at the Transpalette in Bourges, France opening in 13 June, 2008. The residency is taking place between November, 2007 and June, 2008.

Marius Notvik (1973) was invited by Phonsak La-or, Vice-Chairman, The Land Foundation, in Chiang Mai, Thailand to participate in The Land Foundation's One Year Project #2 residency programme. From The land Foundation press release: "The land foundation is a platform of and for social engagement, experimental alternative education at the intersection of debate, and holistic learning." The residency will take place between January and April, 2008. The project is supported by 03–funding*.

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 in 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 2008. Bergen Kunsthall will exhibit Books and 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) is curated by Taru Elfving and Rickard Borgström, and 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.

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, and 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.

Frankfurter Kunstverein and Centre d'Art Contemporain Genève has released a full catalogue on Gardar Eide Einarsson, entitled South of Heaven with contributions by Chus Martinez, Ina Blom, Katia Gárcia-Antón, Dieter Roelstraete, Ingo Nierman and an interview with Bob Nickas. The catalogue is published by Revolver.

Lene Berg released the book Stalin by Picasso, as part of a project entitled Stalin by Picasso or Portrait With a 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, but as the original picture, Lene Berg's work met the opposition or power structures, raising issues art's role on the representation and interests of these forces of power. The book's preface is written by Caroline Ugelstad.

Yona Friedman (Budapest, 1923) is the Visiting Professor of the 2008 Advanced Course in Visual Arts, taking place in July in Como, Italy. The Course, directed by Annie Ratti and curated by Anna Daneri, Cesare Pietroiusti and Luca Cerizza, is a workshop of artistic and theoretical experimentation. During the Course students will be involved in daily workshop activity with Yona Friedman, in in-depth theoretical studies with the curators, and participate in seminars held by distinguished protagonists of the world of culture. The XIV edition of the CSAV takes place between 1 and 23 July 2008 and application deadline is 3 April, 2008. For more information, please visit Fondazione Antonio Ratti's website.

The Jan van Eyck Academie is an institute for research and production in the fields of fine art, design and theory. Every year, 48 international researchers realise their individual or collective projects in this artistic and critical environment. Artists, designers and theoreticians are invited to submit proposals for individual or collective research projects for a one-year, two-year or variable research periods in the departments of Fine Art, Design and Theory. Deadline for submissions is 15 April, 2008.
Application details and form can be accessed at http://www.janvaneyck.nl/_devices/frames_applications.html.

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: Figure in a Mountain Landscape, Program dates: July 07, 2008 to August 22, 2008, Application deadline: April 11, 2008; Cosmic Ray Research, Program dates: September 15, 2008 to October 31, 2008, Application deadline: May 09, 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 Bank Centre website.

20 April, 2008 is the deadline for submissions of project proposals for the 2009 Festival of Regions, Austria. The Festival of Regions focus in current, site-specific art and culture and it has been taking place biennially since 1993 at changing locations in the Austrian federal state of Upper Austria. Projects should be in the areas of site-specific art and culture, art in public space, everyday culture, art education, performance and participatory practices. The final opportunity to engage directly with the site will take place at the Investigations on Site on 10 April. For more information, please contact Thomas Kreiseder, Festival of Regions, Marktplatz 12, 4100 Ottensheim at presse@fdr.at, or visit www.fdr.at.

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 registartion is 31 May, 2008 at http://artswap-europe.eu.

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 deadlines are:
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 the artistic field. Deadline is 30 April, 2008.
Module for Network Funding: This Module provides funding within the Nordic countries for network building. Deadline is also 30 April, 2008
Further information on www.kknord.org.

Helsinki International Curatorial Programme currently offers curatorial residencies in Helsinki for international visual arts curators. The programme is 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.

*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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