'Whatever Happened to Sex in Scandinavia?' is a research project that consists of three platforms – an exhibition, a programme of public events and a publication – examining the juncture of the political and the erotic through the work of artists produced predominantly in the context of the countercultural movements of the 1960s and 70s. Part of OCA's Verksted series, the exhibition and public programme are the result of an extensive research project about the international perception of Scandinavia from the 1950s onwards as a utopic region of socialism and sexual freedom. This project introduces OCA's new premises at Nedre gate 7 in Oslo.

Saturday, 8 November / 19:30

Speakers: Barney Rosset + Marta Kuzma
Screening: Obscene (2007), dir. Daniel O'Connor and Neil Ortenberg

prior r.s.v.p. is required for this event to fleur@oca.no

Wednesday, 12 November / 19:00
Speaker: Sanja Iveković + Pablo Lafuente

Subject: Double Life: (Feminist) Politics of Representation, Media and Women Activism

This event is funded by 03–funding*.

Wednesday, 19 November / 19:00
Speaker: Nicky Hamlyn
Screening: A Compilation of Short Films by Stan Brakhage

Wednesday, 26 November / 19:00
Speaker:Bjørn Blumenthal
Subject: Wilhelm Reich
and
Speaker: Håvard Nilsen and Subject: The Troll Circle
+
Screening of Sigmund Freud's Dora: A Case of Mistaken Identity (1979), dir. Anthony McCall, Claire Pajaczkowaska, Andrew Tyndall and Jane Weinstock

OCA launches the redesign of its website and logo

Please visit oca.no to see the new design created by Hans Gremmen

OCA provides financial support on a quarterly basis for international projects including Norwegian artists and/or cultural producers. All applications must be sent by post and must be postmarked by 15 November. Applications sent after 15 November will be returned to the respective applicants.

Recipients from the September 2008 grants review for International Support are listed here.

Click here for information on International Support and the application process.

For any questions regarding the application, please contact Jørn Mortensen at OCA at jorn.mortensen@oca.no.

! Application deadline: 15 November 2008

In collaboration with the Norwegian Embassy in Beijing, China, OCA offers a studio residency for an artist or curator at the Platform China Beijing Residency Programme, for two months either in spring (April/May) or autumn (September/October) 2009.

Upcoming Resident 2008/2009: Ane Graff

At the core of Ane Graff's work is the poetics of scientific research. The exhibition Fall Into Matter (2008) 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 November/December 2008: Andreas Siqueland

Andreas Siqueland is an artist based in Oslo and Paris, who, together with Andreas Kjellesvik, constitutes aiPotu. The duo works with site-specific projects, which are often of a collaborative nature, crossing over traditional boundaries for artistic practice. From November, 2007 to June, 2008, Andreas Siqueland was a resident at Pavilion Residency Program at Palais de Tokyo, Paris. Recent exhibitions includePavillon 7, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France and Tegnebiennalen 2008, Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo, Norway, and 2008 Biennale of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.

OCA's International Studio Programme Oslo (ISP) is available for international artists and curators by invitation, independently or in connection with research in Norway.

Click here for information on the International Studio Programme Oslo.

Sanja Iveković Artist born in Zagreb, Croatia, lives and works in Berlin, Germany

Sanja Iveković graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, Croatia. Her art production has spanned a range of media such as photography, performance, video and installations. She belongs to the artistic generation that emerged after '68 and was raised in Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and whose post-object art was usually referred to with the umbrella term 'New Art Practice'. In the Yugoslav/Croatian art scene she was the first woman artist to adopt a clearly feminist attitude. In 1973 she started to work with video, and her videos were selected for numerous international video festivals (among others in The Hague, San Sebastián, Los Angeles, Berlin, Paris and Montreal). She has had solo exhibitions and video presentations in art institutions such as the ICA, London; Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne; MoMA, New York; and Taxispalais Gallery, Innsbruck. Her work has also been shown at international exhibitions such as documenta 9, documenta 11 and documenta 12 in Kassel, Manifesta 2 (Luxembourg), Body and the East (Ljubljana and New York), After the Wall (Stockholm and Berlin), Double Life (Vienna) or How do We Want to be Governed? (Barcelona, Miami and Rotterdam). Iveković founded in the late 1980s the non-governmental organization Elektra – Centre for Women's Studies, the Women's Art Centre, based in Zagreb. She is also a member of a number of non-governmental organizations in Croatia, including B.a.B.e – The Women's Human Rights Group. From 1999 to 2001 she taught Contemporary Women's Art Practice at The Center for Women's Studies in Zagreb. Iveković has received awards such as the Canada Council Grant for Visiting artists (1979, 1982 and 1994) and the Artslink Grant (US). She is currently working in Berlin as part of a DAAD grant.

Carolee Schneemann American artist, lives and works in New York City

Carolee Schneemann is a multidisciplinary artist who has transformed the very definition of art, with work encompassing painting, film, performance and installation. Her works have been shown internationally, at the LA Museum of Contemporary Art, the Hirshhorn Museum D.C., the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art, New York City, among others. In 2007, a dual exhibit at CEPA Gallery, Buffalo NY & MOCCA Toronto featured recent video installations. Electronic Arts Intermix, New York City, and Anthology Film Archives, New York City collaborated on presentations of newly restored and current film &videos November 2007.

Vibeke Tandberg selected to participate in the 28th São Paulo Biennial

28th São Paulo Biennial São Paulo, Brazil. Curatorial team: Ivo Mesquita and Ana Paula Cohen 26 October – 6 December 2008

Ivo Mesquita, Chief Curator of the 28th São Paulo Biennial and a guest at OCA's International Visitor Programme (IVP) in May 2008, together with curator Ana Paula Cohen, have invitedVibeke Tandberg to exhibit in the 2008 São Paulo Biennial. For the exhibition, taking place until 6 December 2008, Ivo Mesquita proposed to rethink the way in which the São Paulo Biennial Foundation has been producing the successive editions since 1951, opening up an interlude of reflection in the exhibition's history and what role biennials play for the cultural, tourism and event industry. In São Paulo, Tandberg is exhibiting the work Albert Camus, L'étranger, Roman, Gallimard 2003, Prémier dépôt légal: juin 1942. ISBN 2-07-021-200-3, in which the artist dissects an edition of the book L'étranger by Albert Camus in cutting out each of the 32 000 words comprising the text and subsequently alphabetizing each onto separate formations divided into individual framed works. Tandberg draws from Camus' story about the ultimate meaninglessness of life to evolve a work that gives another form to that connoting what is effectively formless and functionless. Among other invited artists are Eija-Liisa Ahtila,Sophie Calle and Joan Jonas.

For media inquiries please contact Felipe Taboada at felipe@bienalsaopaulo.org.br or Bruna Azevedo at bruna@bienalsaopaulo.org.br. For more information, please visit the biennial's website.

HC Gilje and Marius Engh selected to participate in the 1st Brussels Biennial for Contemporary Art

1st Brussels Biennial for contemporary Art Brussels, Belgium. Curator: Barbara Vanderlinden 19 October 2008 – 4 January 2009

Closely related to the Brussels' initial modernization project and organized under the conceptual umbrella devised by its artistic director, Barbara Vanderlinden, the 1st Brussels Biennial for Contemporary Art incorporates exhibitions curated by eight contemporary art institutions. Within the exhibition curated by L'appartement 22 in Rabat, Morocco, the Norwegian curator Anne Szefer Karlsen has invited HC Gilje to exhibit the public art work Wind up bird (working title). Marius Enghhas been invited by Nicolaus Schafhausen and Florian Waldvogel to exhibit within the Witte de With Contemporary Art Center section of the biennial. The artist will exhibit Lead, follow or get the hell out of the way, a series of 14 photographs taken on details of Teufelsberg – a symbolic mark in Berlin. Among other art institutions participating in the biennial are MuHKA, Museum voor Hedendaagse Kunst in Antwerpen, Belgium, Drik, Images, Communication &Information Technology in Dahka, Bangladesh and BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, in Utrecht, the Netherlands.

For media inquiries, please send an email to press@brusselsbiennial.org. For more information visit the biennial website or send an email to office@brusselsbiennial.org.

The project is also supported by 03–funding*.

Lene Berg selected to participate in the 6th Taipei Biennial

6th Taipei Biennial Taipei, Taiwan. Curatorial team: Manray Hsu and Vasif Kortun 13 September 2008 – 4 January 2009

The 6th edition of the Taipei Biennial, curated by Manray Hsu and Vasif Kortun, a guest at OCA's International Visitor Programme (IVP) in April 2008, takes place between 13 September 2008 and 4 January 2009 in various venues throughout the city of Taipei, Taiwan. According to the curators, this year's biennial does not have 'a single theme, but a constellation of correlated themes, most of which address the chaotic states of things in this time of globalization'. The threads of investigation in the exhibition are processed and witnessed through do-it-yourself practices, individual stories, and humor. Within the biennial, Lene Berg is exhibiting Stalin by Picasso, which, according to curator Kristine Jærn Pilgaard is 'about how two icons from the 20th century, Stalin and Picasso, once were perceived and how much their public personas have changed since then. On another level, it is about art and artistic freedom, or un-freedom, and of ways of reading and using images, particularly images of so-called great men'. Other exhibiting artists are Superflex, Nevin Aladag and Mario Rizzi.

For media inquiries please contact Juillet Lu at juillet@tfam.gov.tw, or contact the biennial at info@taipeibiennial.org for more information.

The project is supported by 03–funding*.

Hans Hamid Rasmussen selected to participate in the Third Guangzhou Triennial

Third Guangzhou Triennial Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, People's Republic of China Curatorial team: Gao Shiming, Sarat Maharaj and Johnson Chang Tsong-zung 6 September – 16 November 2008

Hans Hamid Rasmussen has been invited by international curators Gao Shiming, Sarat Maharaj and Johnson Chang Tsong-zung to exhibit within the Third Guangzhou Triennial. The triennial takes place from 6 September to 16 November 2008 at the Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China under the title Farewell to Post-Colonialism. According to the curators, the title and framework of the triennial refers to a desire 'for the renovation of the theoretical interface of contemporary art, to depart from its all pervasive socio-political discourse, and work together with artists and critics to discover new modes of thinking and develop new analytical tools for dealing with today's world'. In addition to the exhibition, the Third Guangzhou Triennial will present an International Symposium and a Round-table forum in November 2008. For the exhibition, Hans Hamid Rasmussen produceed a new textile work, that addresses the perception of geographical places in relation to social bodies.

For more information please refer to the triennial website or contact Tang Xiolin and Asea Dai at gztriennial@gmail.com.

Until 26 January 2009, P.S.1/MoMA presents Børre Sæthre's solo exhibition. Curated by Lia Gangitano, P.S.1 Curatorial Advisor and entitled Børre Sæthre, the exhibition presents the artist's highly aestheticized immersive environment, in which 'anachronistically frozen in space, Sæthre's mythological taxidermy hybrids insinuate elements of surrealism, drawing from an ancient register that collides with futuristic settings'.

From 29 October to 6 December 2008 The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art School of Art presents a solo exhibition by Lene Berg titled Stalin by Picasso or Portrait of Woman with Moustache. Curated by Saskia Bos, Dean and Sara Reisman, Associate Dean of Cooper Union School of Art, the exhibition primarily comprised of works related to two projects – Stalin by Picasso and Gentlemen and Arseholes – that reflect on artistic and cultural production during the Cold War era. Berg's exhibition provokes discussion on the relationships between art and politics, in recent history and in the contemporary moment.

Kjell Bjørgeengen presents a new a life video project in collaboration with Keith Rowe andPhillip Wachsmann within the Kill Your Timid Notion Tour. Curated by Barry Esson, Curator of Arika, the tour will take place between 29 November and 7 December and will visit important international institutions in the UK such as the British Film Institute, BFI IMAX, ICA, Arnolfini, Spike Island and the Centre for Contemporary Art Glasgow.

The exhibition If you won't fly, try using it as a reducing machine is a collaboration betweenStian Ådlandsvik and Lutz-Rainer Müller taking place concurrently at the galleries Trottoir, Elektrohaus, HfbK Galerie in Hanburg, Germany from 13 November to December 2008. The project derives from the desire to fly and the manufacturing process of the A380 – the biggest aircraft ever built – to approach theories regarding time and the impossibility/desire to be in different places at the same time.

Torbjørn Rødland, Goksøyr & Martens (Toril Goksøyr and Camilla Martens), Bodil Furu and Maia Urstad are exhibiting within Disturbance – Contemporary Art from Scandinavia & South Africa, at Johannesburg Art Gallery, South Africa. Curated byMaria Fidel Regueros and Clive Kellner, Director of Johannesburg Art Gallery and a guest at OCA's International Visitor Programme, the exhibition examine the relationship that Scandinavian and South African artists have to notions of identity and place. Disturbance takes place at the Johannesburg Art Gallery, South Africa between26 October 2008 and 1 March 2009. The project is supported by 03–funding*.

Matias Faldbakken and Leif Tangen have been invited by Ruba Katrib, Assistant Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, USA, to exhibit within The Possibility of an Island, at MOCA from 4 December 2008 to 15 March 2009. According to the curator, the exhibition takes as a starting point the recent novel The Possibility of an Island, by Michael Houellebecq to pose existential questions in the face of a never arriving future. For The Possibility of an Island, MOCA will commission new works from Matias Faldbakken and Leif Tangen will partake in public programme of the exhibition with a talk about the process of writing the novel Phillip. The Possibility of an Island takes place at Goldman Warehouse in Miami. Among other participating artists are Claire Fontaine, Peter Coffin and Cao Fei.

Åsa Sonjasdottir have been invited by Veronica Wiman and Berin Colonu, Associate Visual Art Curator at YBCA to exhibit within The Gatherers: Creating Our Urban Spheres, taking place at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, USA, from 31 October 2008 to 11 January 2009. According to the curators, the exhibition 'looks at the diverse array of practitioners and their motivation for greening the urban sphere'. Åsa Sonjasdottir will be exhibiting the long-term projectPotato Perspectives, in which the artist uses the potato plant as a starting point for investigations in cultural and societal relations.

Øystein Aasan has been invited by curator Fanny Gonella to exhibit within The Repetition of Sigs at Alte Fabrik in Rapperswil, Switzerland. According to the curator, the exhibition addresses 'the process of how a group becomes visible in our surrounding'. For the exhibition, Øystein Aasan developed a new project based on the campus of Cité Universitaire, in Paris, France where each house is representative of a nation. The Repetition of Sigs takes place from 25 October to 21 December 2008.

Samba Fall has been invited by curator Olivier Couqueberg to exhibit within The Man Is a Mystery 3, a biennial exhibition of Contemporary African Art, taking place at Saint-Brieuc, France, from 10 to 17 November 2008. The curator invited nine artists who, by their works, question the notion of happiness and the views of Africa as a continent of sadness, or as said by Couqueberg, the exhibition will show works by artists who 'can speak about the happiness because it is present everywhere in their countries, as of its impossibility'. The project is supported by 03–funding*.

Ingrid Book and Carina Hedén have been invited to participate in the lecture seriesThis is Tomorrow – Urban Utopias, Dystopias and Heterotopias at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT Visual Art Program, Cambridge, USA. The artists will be presenting a lecture entitled Clearing Land in Affluent Society during an evening of lectures titled Urban Agriculture. The lecture series is curated by Ute Meta Bauer, Director, MIT Visual Arts Program and Yvonne P. Dodererisiting Professor, MIT Visual Arts Program in collaboration with Amber Frid-Jimenez, Lecturer MIT Visual Arts Program. Book and Hedén's lecture will take palce on 1 December 2008.

Siri Hermansen has been invited by Ekaterina Zvorykina, Director Non/fiction Fair, Moscow, Russia to exhibit the project Bipolar Horizon within the anual book fair Non/fiction n. 10. The project focuses on the abandoned mining town of Pyramiden and was a solo project at the Sternesen Art Museum in 2006. The fair taked place from 26 to 30 November 2009. The project is supported by 03–funding*.

Tove Pedersen to exhibit within the 5th International Fiber Art Biennale, curated byDeng Lin and taking place at Tsinghua University, Beijing, People's Republic of China from 25 November to 25 December 2008. Within the biennial the artist will exhibit the works Sunrise and Stardust.

The College & Graduate School of Art, part of the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis, and the Saint Louis Art Museum invite applications for the Henry L. and Natalie E. Freund Teaching Fellowship. Two fellowships will be awarded – one during Fall 2009 – Spring 2010, and a second during Fall 2010 – Spring 2011. Each fellowship is open to an artist who will work with students, have a one-person exhibition at the Saint Louis Art Museum; and deliver one public lecture at the College of Art or Saint Louis Art Museum. For more information on the aplication process please visit samfoxschool.wustl.edu or send an email to artdeansearch@samfox.wustl.edu.

In the summer and fall of 2009 many of New Mexico (USA) arts organizations will join together to present LAND/ART, a project exploring relationships of land, art and community through exhibitions, site-specific art works, lectures and a culminating book. Proposals for exhibitions and installations for LAND/ART are being sought by The Harwood Art Center and Richard Levy Gallery and information for proposal submissions can be found by clicking onto the following link:www.landartnm.org/submissions.html.

Open e a+ is an annual open submission exhibition taking place in Ireland. The 2009 edition, curated by Angelika Nollert and Yilmaz Dziewior will take place 14 March to 24 May 2009 and is open for artists world-wide, working in all media, materials, practices, styles and genres. For more information and application forms please visit www.eva.ie or send an email to Paul M. O'Reilly at info@eva.ie.

Rhea Gaardboe Dall joins as project coordinator for The Danish Pavilion and The Nordic Pavilion

Office for Contemporary Art Norway and Kunststyrelsen, Denmark, are pleased to announce the appointment of Rhea Gaardboe Dall as project coordinator for the collaborative exhibition project of The Danish Pavilion and The Nordic Pavilion at the 2009 Venice Biennale. Curated by the artists Elmgreen & Dragset, this first ever collaboration between the Danish and the Nordic Pavilion extends the artist duo’s collective practice. Rhea Gaardboe Dall worked as curatorial assistant for the 5th berlin biennial for contemporary art curated by Adam Szymczyk and Elena Filipovic. Most recently, she has also assisted the curatorial team of the first Danish large-scale contemporary art event, U-TURN Quadrennial for Contemporary Art. Previous to those engagements, she earned a masters degree from Copenhagen University's Department of Arts and Cultural Studies and worked at museums and art institutions in Copenhagen and in New York where she interned at the Guggenheim Museum's Contemporary Art Department for the Hugo Boss Prize exhibition of 2006.

Elisabeth Weihe joins OCA's team as Facilities Manager

OCA is pleased to announce that Elisabeth Weihe is a new member the OCA team as Facilities Manager. Elisabeth Weihe has been engaged part-time in different areas within OCA since 2006. She finished her Master of Visual Art at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts this spring and has a Bachelor degree within Specialized Art, from Bergen National Academy of the Arts.

*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 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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