In November, OCA launches a new Semesterplan when OCA will welcome the public to its new location, in Nedre gate 7. Please continue to check our website for details.

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 received after 15 November will be returned to the respective applicants.

Please note that the results of the 15 September application will be announced by mid October, 2008.

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

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

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*.

The Office for Contemporary Art Norway is responsible for the Norwegian participation in the International Studio Program Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany;  the International Studio and Curatorial Program (ISCP), New York, NY, USA; the Platform Garanti Istanbul Residency Program, Istanbul, Turkey. New residency programmes include the Platform China Residency, Beijing, People's Republic of China and the the Residency Berlin Mitte, Berlin, Germany;

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

In January-February and March-April 2009, 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 for up to NOK 4,000 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 application process, please contact Jørn Mortensen at OCA at jorn.mortensen@oca.no.

Closed Session is a short term residency in New York City, USA offered to individual artists or curators at the invitation of the Office for Contemporary Art Norway.

Click here for more information on the [OCA, NYC] – Closed Sessions Residency Programme.

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. Instead, 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.

6th Taipei Biennial Taipei, Taiwan

Curators: Manray Hsu and Vasif Kortun

13 September, 2008 – 4 January, 2009

With the participation of Lene Berg

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 doesn't 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.

Please contact the biennial at info@taipeibiennial.org for more information.

The project is supported by 03–funding*.

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

With the participation of Hans Hamid Rasmussen

Hans Hamid Rasmussen has been invited by 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 theGuangdong 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 2007. For the exhibition, Hans Hamid Rasmussen produced a new textile work that addresses the perception of geographical places in relation to social bodies. Other exhibiting artists are Matthew Buckingham, Vik Muniz and Ye Fang.

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

The project is supported by 03–funding*.

Yokohama Triennale 2008 Yokohama, Japan

Artistic Director: Tsutomu Mizusawa Curators: Daniel Birnbaum, Hu Fang, Akiko Miyake, Hans Ulrich Obrist and Beatrix Ruf

13 September – 30 November, 2008

With the participation of Michael Elmgreen & Ingar Dragset

Daniel Birnbaum, Hu Fang, Akiko Miyake, Hans Ulrich Obrist and Beatrix Ruf, curators of the Yokohama Triennale 2008, have invited the artist duo Elmgreen & Dragset to exhibit the new work Catch me should I Fall within the triennial. Entitled Time Crevasse, the triennial takes place in various venues throughout the city of Yokohama. Among other artists exhibiting within the triennial are: Cao Fei, Trisha Donnelly, Sharon Hayes, Mark Leckey, Cerith Wyn Evans with Throbbing Gristle and Paul McCarthy.

Manifesta 7 Trentino – Südtirol/Alto Adige, Italy

Curators: Adam Budak, Anselm Franke/Hila Peleg and Raqs Media Collective

19 July – 2 November, 2008

Participating artists from Norway: Knut Åsdam Annie Anawana Haloba Hobøl Kristina Bræin Helen & Hard Architects

Special Projects: Elisabeth Byre as part of Konstfack CuratorLab Espen Sommer Eide

For Manifesta 7, Raqs Media Collective, formed by Jeebesh Bagchi, Monica Narula and Shuddhabrata Sengupta and OCA's International Studio Programme (ISP) visitors in April 2008, Anselm Franke & Hila Peleg and Adam Budak, OCA's IVP visitor in October 2007, have been selected to form three coordinated but autonomous curatorial teams. Each team worked in a different venue and collaborated on a fourth venue to realize an exhibition that emphasizes the use of public spaces. Within the biennial, Knut Åsdam presents a new work entitled Oblique, and Annie Anawana Haloba Hobølpremiered the sound installation The Air between Two Women. Kristina Bræin is exhibiting a partly site-specific installation entitled The Problem of Functionality and the Stavanger-based architecture office Helen & Hard presents a site-specific installation entitled The Naked Garden. As part of special projects curated by Raqs Media Collective, Elisabeth Byreparticipates in a project entitled Hot Desking: Four broadsheets, four cities, four events and Espen Sommer Eide presents the performance Building Instruments.

The project is also supported by 03–funding*.

19 October is the opening date for Børre Sæthre's solo exhibition at P.S.1/MoMA, New York, USA. Curated by Lia Gangitano, Curatorial Advisor to P.S.1/MoMA, the exhibition will incorporate and adapt elements from the exhibition For Someone Who Nearly Died But Survived, which was on view at Bergen Kunsthall, Norway in 2007. An opening reception will be held at P.S.1 on 19 October from 12:00 to 18:00.

The Cooper Union School of Art is organizing a Lene Berg solo exhibition entitled Portrait of a Woman with Moustache by Lene Berg. Curated by Sara Reisman, Associate Dean and Saskia Bos, Dean of Cooper Union School of Art, the exhibition, schedule the open from 29 October to 6 December, will feature the video Projects Stalin by Picasso and Gentlemen and Arseholes, accompanied by related collages, publications and a outside banner.

Kjell Bjørgeengen has been invited by Barry Esson, curator of at Arika, an independent production company, to participate with a new video project in the Kill your timid Notion Tour, in the UK. The tour is affiliated with the the artist's solo exhibitionKill your Timid Notion at Dundee Contemporary Arts (DCC), Dundee, UK, curated by Graham Domke, Curator DCC and on view until 12 October, 2008. For the tour, Bjørgeengen will perform a life video in collaboration with Keith Rowe and Phillip Wachsmann, in which sound is turn in video by the use of analogue synthesis and custom design hardware. The tour will take place between 29 November and 7 December and will visit important international institutions 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 between Stian Ådlandsvik and Lutz-Rainer Müller taking place concurrently at the galleries Trottoir, Elektrohaus, HfbK Galerie in Hanburg, Germany and open 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.

Ruba Katrib, Assistant Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, USA has invited Ida Ekblad to exhibit in Dark Continents, taking place at MOCA from 26 September to 9 November, 2008. Dark Continents revisits the modernist fascination with tropical locales and indigenous people prevalent during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Artists in the exhibition examine ideas and aesthetics that were popular during this time period and relate them to current views by challenging stereotypical relationships that associate femininity with nature. For the exhibition, Ida Ekblad has produced new work that stems from her ongoing series of sculptures and drawings using appropriated mass-media images depicting non-Western cultures. Other artist exhibiting within Dark Continents are Hadassah Emmerich, Naoi Fisher and Paulina Olowska.

Following a visit to Norway to participate in OCA's International Visitor Programme, the Director of Johannesburg Art Gallery, Clive Kellner has invited, together with Maria Fidel Regueros, Torbjørn Rødland, Goksøyr & Martens (Toril Goksøyr andCamilla Martens), Bodil Furu and Maia Urstad to participate in the exhibitionDisturbance – Contemporary Art from Scandinavia & South Africa, at Johannesburg Art Gallery, 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. ForDisturbance, Torbjørn Rødland will present various photographs, works with pop culture elements that poke fun at clichés. Bodil Furu will exhibit My Ambience and Opera, which filter the immediate reality using video and sound. Maia Urstad will exhibit a sound installation consisting of a wall of radios and a performance entitledSound Barrier. The artists' duo Goksøyr & Martens will exhibit Speech Choir, a new work created for the exhibition. The Scandinavian artists Paul Gernes, Alija-Lisa and Veli Granö will also participate in the exhibition alongside 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 26 October, 2008 and 1 March, 2009. The project is supported by 03–funding*.

Matt Packer, Curator of Exhibition and Projects at Lewis Glucksman Gallery, Cork, Ireland, has invited Marte Johnslien to exhibit within Bookish at the Lewis Glucksman Gallery from 26 June to 26 October, 2008. The exhibition presents works from artists including John Baldessari, Richard Prince and Rainer Ganahl, who have worked with publications and printed matter. Within Bookish, Marte Johnslien exhibits Le Livre Sur Le Livre, which focus on the book as a medium for distribution of knowledge.

Åsa Sonjasdottir is invited by Veronica Wiman and Berin Colonu, Associate Visual Art Curator 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 project Potato Perspectives, in which the artist uses the potato plant as a starting point for investigations in cultural and societal relations.

Curator Ann Geeraerts has invited Unni Gjertsen to exhibit the work Creative History within The Last Marquise, taking place from 12 September to 23 November, 2008 at the Castle van Gaasbeek, Belgium. Organized by vzw Gynaika in Antwerpen, Belgium, the exhibition presents a selection of contemporary artworks in dialogue with the life of the marquise Arconati Visconti, who lived in the Castle van Gaasbeek. Unni Gjertsen's Creative History is composed of ten silk screens with tabloid statements about female intellectuals and artists. The statements are a mix of facts, lies and possible truths that provoque a questioning on how history is created. Among other artists included in The Last Marquise are Cindy Sherman, Katharina Fritsch, Sylvie Fleury and
Barbara Visser.

Mette Tronvoll has been invited by curator Prof. Dr. Apinan Poshyananda to exhibit her work within Traces of Siamese Smile: Art + Faith + Politics + Love, taking place at the new Bangkok Art and Culture Center from 20 September to 23 November, 2008. Acording to the curator, the exhibition features works by invited Thai and international artists, 'each interconnecting with one another to tell the stories of Siamese Smile through different aspects of art, faith, politics and love'. For Traces of Siamese Smile: Art + Faith + Politics + Love, Tronvoll will produce a new video work, related to her photograph series Isortoq Unartoq. Other exhibiting artists are Andy Warhol, Louise Bourgeois and Pierre et Gilles. The project is supported by 03–funding*.

Samba Fall is 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*.

Karl Røys is invited by Sussanna Gyulamiryan President, Art and Cultural Studies Laboratory (ACSL) to partake in the 1st Annual International Forum on Contemporary Art taking place at the ACSL from 1 November to 15 December, 2008 under the titleInterdiagnosis. During the Forum, Karl Røys will present his earlier work in relation to Armenian contemporary art and will also produce a new videowork researching the aftermath of the 1 March demonstration. The project is supported by 03–funding*.

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

Matias Faldbakken and Leif Tangen are 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 and among other participating artists are Claire Fontaine, Peter Coffin and Cao Fei.

For its 55th edition Oberhausen invites submissions to its International competition. Works of all genres and formats can be submitted, with the only conditions that they have a maximum length of 35 minutes and that they have been completed after 1 January, 2007. Starting in 2009, entries for the International Competition will only be eligible if they have not been shown at any other German festival). Submission deadline is 15 January, 2009. For more information please visit reelport.com.

*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.

You have received this email as you are subscribed to the OCA.no newsletter.
If you wish to be removed please email newsletter-unsubscribe@lists.oca.no or visit http://www.oca.no/newsletter/