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 application system for applications for International Support Programme. This system should be used for the Fourth Quarter Application Review, with a deadline of 1 November 2009. Applicants are able to apply at www.stikk.no.
Click here for information on International Support and the application process.
For any questions regarding the application, please contact Anne Gunnæs, at anne.gunnaes@oca.no. For international institutional applications, please address your questions to Alexandra Cruz, at alexandra.cruz@oca.no.
In collaboration with the Norwegian Embassy in Beijing, China, OCA offers two studio residencies for an artist or curator at the Platform China Beijing Residency Programme, for two months each, in spring (April/May) and autumn (September/October) 2010. Applicants must be Norwegian citizens, or live and work in Norway. The residency Platform China Residency Programme is covered by 03–funding*.
Click here for information on the residency at Platform China Residency and the application process, or please contact Alexandra Cruz at OCA at alexandra.cruz@oca.no.
The Office for Contemporary Art Norway would like to announce 'The Grammar of Forms', a series public events, workshops and presentations that will take place throughout autumn 2009 at OCA's premises at Nedre gate 7, with the aim to look at language, writing, criticism and publishing in relation to contemporary art, exploring its diverse modes of operation and possibilities within historical and contemporary practices. In these public events writers, artists, critics, publishers and theorists will investigate different experiences of and approaches to writing and language specifically in relation to art. These events will have a pedagogical remit, and be accompanied by a series of projects including presentation of artworks such as the original manuscripts of Sol LeWitt's 'Sentences on Conceptual Art' and libraries of publications, made available to the public for consultation and reading.
For full programme, please click here.
Peter Osborne
Wednesday, 21 October/ 19:00
Speaker: Peter Osborne
Subject: Fragment and Project: From Schlegel's Athenaeum Fragments to LeWitt's 'Sentences on Conceptual Art'
Many of the ideas central to the understanding of contemporary art – genre, fragment, project, the new or, the concepts of art and criticism
themselves – derive from early German Romanticism. This lecture revisits Friedrich Schlegel's Athenaeum Fragments as the basis for a
new interpretation of Sol LeWitt's 'Sentences on Conceptual Art', one of the defining documents of this movement, focusing in particular on the
art-status of criticism and its philosophical function of 'completing' works of art.
21 October to 19 December
Project: 'Sol LeWitt's 'Sentences on Conceptual Art':
Manuscript and Draft Materials 1968–69'
Courtesy of Collection Daled, Belgium
Sol LeWitt's 'Sentences on Conceptual Art' was first published in May 1969 in the first issue of Art-Language, including LeWitt's words:
'Ideas alone can be works of art; they are in a chain of development that may eventually find some form.' OCA will present the rarely exhibited handwritten
notes by the artist and illustrate the evolution of the 'Sentences', which are an example of draftsmanship in their own right.
Wednesday, 28 October/ 19:00
Speaker: Ina Blom
Subject: On Lynda Benglis's Mumble (An Instance of Videosociality)
What are the critical terms through which we approach the question of 'sociality' in art? In 1972 Lynda Benglis and Robert Morris started an
artistic dialogue through a collaborative project that, using video as a medium, seemed to turn, self-reflexively, around their evolving
relationship. The two resulting works, Benglis's Mumble (1972) and Morris's Exchange (1973) seem to suggest that this
relationship is the unique result of the productive framework of televisual technologies, and open up fundamental questions about the social
art practices of the 1960s and 70s.
28 October to 19 December
Project: 'Lynda Benglis's Mumble (1972) and Robert Morris's Exchange (1973)'
In 1972 Lynda Benglis and Robert Morris agreed to exchange videos in order to develop a dialogue between each other's work. The resulting
artworks, key examples of early video, will be on show at OCA's public space.
For full programme, please click here.
The Office for Contemporary Art Norway is responsible for the Norwegian participation in the Platform China Residency in 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 Platform Garanti Istanbul Residency Program, Istanbul, Turkey; the International Artist in Residency Programme at WIELS Contemporary Art Centre, in Brussels, Belgium; and at Capacete, in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, Brazil.
Jesper Alvær
b. 1973 in Copenhagen, Denmark, lives and works in Prague, Czech Republic and Oslo
Jesper Alvær received his formal training as an artist in Prague, New York and Kitakyushu, Japan. For the past ten years, he has been primarily working in the Czech Republic and Central Europe. Many of his projects may be characterised as long-term investigations that takes into account various life worlds and the effects of cultural constructions. His projects often materialise in the form of installations, videos or undocumented interpersonal meetings. Recent exhibitions include: 'Sight of Times', CCA, Torun, Poland; 'Representing The Nation', ITCA, NG Prague, the Czech Republic; 'Lights On', Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo, Norway; 'World-Ex-Position', Open Space, Vienna, Austria; 'Figure and Ground', Bunkier Sztuki, Krakow, Poland; and 'Transkultura: Akt 1', Atrium, MG, Brno, the Czech Republic.
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.
Sheela Gowda
Photograph: Christoph Storz
Courtesy of the artist
Sheela Gowda
Artist, b.1957, Bhadravati, India. Lives and works in Bangalore, India
Sheela Gowda trained as a painter at the Royal College of Arts in London and the Cité International des Arts in Paris. These European references, together with an awareness of the Indian socio-cultural situation, influence a body of work that approaches bodily and emotional immersion. In the 1990s, Gowda worked with unconventional materials, through which she expressed what she interpreted as both angst and melancholy induced by socio-political tensions. Her installations attempt to preserve the integrity of the original materials while at the same time expressing peculiar resistances. In her own words, Gowda seeks a 'specificity within abstraction' that avoids strident statements and instead reveals meaning through suggestion.
Sheela Gowda's work has been included in documenta 12 in Kassel, 2007; 'Fare Mondi//Making Worlds…', the 53rd Venice Biennale, 2009; 'Indian Highway' at The Serpentine Gallery, London and Astrup Fearnley Museum, Oslo, Norway, 2009; the 2009 Sharjah Biennial, United Arab Emirates; 'Santhal Family: Positions Around an Indian Sculpture', MuHKA, Antwerp, Belgium, 2008; and 'HORN PLEASE: Narratives in Contemporary Indian Art', Museum of Fine Arts Bern, Switzerland, 2007-08 among others.
The artist's residency is made possible with the support of O3–funds*
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.
Click here for information on the International Visitor Programme.
David Elliott
David Elliott
Artistic Director, 17th Biennale of Sydney
David Elliott is a curator, writer, broadcaster and museum director primarily concerned with modern and contemporary art. Elliott was Director of the Museum of Modern Art in Oxford, England from 1976–96, Director of Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Sweden from 1996–2001, the founding Director of the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, Japan from 2001–06 and, in 2007 the first Director of Istanbul Modern, Turkey. From 1998–2004, he was President of CIMAM (the International Committee of ICOM for Museums and Collections of Modern Art) and in 2008, he was the Rudolf Arnheim Guest Professor of Art History at Humboldt University, Berlin. Elliott is Artistic Director for the 17th Biennale of Sydney, 'THE BEAUTY OF DISTANCE: Songs of Survival in a Precarious Age' which will take place 12 May to 1 August 2010
Lene Berg
How do you expect me to do a portrait of Stalin?
Videostills from Stalin by Picasso, 2007
Lene Berg to exhibit within
'Hidden in Remembrance is the Silent Memory of Our Future'
Contour 2009 – 4th Biennial of Moving Image
Mechelen, Belgium
15 August–18 October 2009
Lene Berg has been invited by curator Katerina Gregos, a guest at OCA's International Visitor Programme (IVP) in May 2008, to exhibit within Contour 2009 – 4th Biennial of Moving Image in Mechelen, Belgium. Within Contour 2009 Lene Berg will exhibit the project Stalin by Picasso (2008), which has as its point of departure an old dispute about Picasso's portrait of Stalin with a moustache and feminine features. Under the title 'Hidden in Remembrance is the Silent Memory of Our Future', the biennial proposes a reconsideration of recent history, as it takes place twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall. According to the curator, the project will revolve around questions of historical representation and historiography, exploring how historical narratives are constructed and engaging in a process of historical re-evaluation, as to demonstrate the increased importance of historical context in a large segment of contemporary art practice. Contour 2009 takes place in various venues, emphasising the interaction between the location and the works of art on display. Other artists exhibiting within Contour 2009 are Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Mira Sanders and Yael Bartana.
Pushwagner and Kristina Kvalvik to exhibit within
'What a Wonderful World'
2009 Gothenburg International Biennial for Contemporary Art
Gothenburg, Sweden
5 September–15 November 2009
Norwegian artists Pushwagner and Kristina Kvalvik are currently exhibiting within 'What a Wonderful World', this year's edition of the Gothenburg International Biennial for Contemporary Art. According to curators Celia Prado and Johan Pousette 'What a Wonderful World' 'aims to present a generous, poetic and sensual portrayal of human diversity and the human capacity for wonders as well as failures through the gaze and works of contemporary artists'. At Gothenburg City Library, one of the biennial's venues, Pushwagner exhibits Soft City, a pictorial novel drafted between 1969 and 1975 which narrates a day in the live of a family living a mechanical life in a dehumanised city. Within the biennial, Kvalvik exhibits a new video work commissioned by the curators and titled Notes From a Stranger, in which the artist works with moving images from a narrative point of view. The 2009 Gothenburg International Biennial for Contemporary Art is in view until 15 November 2009 in various venues throughout Gothenburg, Sweden presenting works by Fiona Tan, Amar Kanwar, Candice Breitz, Tim Etchells and Susan Hiller.
53rd International Art Exhibition
La Biennale di Venezia
From 7 June to 22 November 2009
Venice, Italy
Anawana Haloba participates in
'Fare Mondi // Making Worlds…',
The main exhibition of the
53rd International Art Exhibition
La Biennale di Venezia
Anawana Haloba is currently exhibiting the large-scale spatial installation The Greater G8 (GG8) AD MARKET withing 'Fare Mondi // Making Worlds…', the main exhibition of the 2009 edition of the Biennale di Venezia, Italy. The artwork follows the logic and desires of a political dreamscape in which Haloba rewrites the rules of economic financial exchange by offering Third World fair-trade goods imbued with a sense of futility. Curated by Daniel Birnbaum, the biennial articulates different themes woven into one, expressing 'a wish to emphasise the process of creation' and presents works by over 90 artists, including Thomas Bayrle, Öyvind Fahlström, Sheela Gowda, Joan Jonas and Wolfgang Tillmans.
'The Collectors'
The Danish Pavilion and
Nordic Pavilion
Curated by Elmgreen & Dragset
The Nordic and Danish Pavilions
'The Collectors', Curated by Elmgreen & Dragset
On the occasion of the 53rd International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, the Nordic and Danish Pavilions collaborate with a project curated by artists' duo Elmgreen & Dragset. Titled 'The Collectors', the project approaches the topic of collecting, and the psychology behind the practice of expressing oneself through physical objects. For 'The Collectors' more than, twenty artists and designers have contributed to creating a different kind of exhibition format, one that will appear closer to a film set than a conventional art display. Exhibiting artists are Thora Dolven Balke, Massimo Bartolini, Hernan Bas, Guillaume Bijl, Maurizio Cattelan, Elmgreen & Dragset, Pepe Espaliú Tom of Finland, Simon Fujiwara, Han & Him, Laura Horelli, Martin Jacobson, William E. Jones, Terence Koh, Jani Leinonen, Klara Lidén, Jonathan Monk, Nico Muhly, Norway Says (Torbjørn Anderssen, Andreas Engesvik and Espen Voll), Henrik Olesen, Nina Saunders, Vibeke Slyngstad, Sturtevant and Wolfgang Tillmans.
For press enquiries related to the project, and for interviews with the artists, please contact the following:
For Norwegian press: Marthe Tveitan at marthe.tveitan@oca.no
For international press: Brian Phillips/Black Frame at bphillips@framenoir.com.
Samba Fall participates in
'PRAXIS: Art in Times of Uncertainty'
2nd Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art
Thessaloniki, Greece
24 May 24 to 27 September 2009
Samba Fall has been invited to exhibit within the 2nd Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, Greece. Curated by Olabisi Silva, Gabriela Salgado and Syrago Tsiara and title 'PRAXIS: Art in Times of Uncertainty', the biennial aims to investigate artistic practises as a privileged space for free expression of ideas and for an alternative view of the world and social environment. Within the biennial, Samba Fall exhibits Africa Map, an installation built by local people of Thessaloniki which presents the ideas that non-Africans have about the continent. Among other exhibiting artists are Sheela Gowda, Amilcar Packer and Alexandre Arrechea.
Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen in St. Gallen, Switzerland is currently exhibiting 'Matias Faldbakken Extreme Siesta', a solo exhibition of Norwegian artist Matias Faldbakken. From 19 September to 22 November 2009, the artist exhibits a series of new works that mirrors a 'non-productive production' and that engages in a DIY-aesthetics. 'Matias Faldbakken Extreme Siesta' is curated by Giovanni Carmine, Director Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen and a guest at OCA's International Visitor Programme (IVP) in January 2008.
From 25 November 2009 to 24 January 2010, Ikon Gallery in Birmingham, UK, will present a survey of Faldbakken's works from the last five years. Curated by Helen Legg, Ikon curator, the exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue produced in collaboration with The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design in Oslo, Norway which presents documentation of works since 2003 and includes newly commissioned texts from cultural theorist Peter Osborne, critic Jennifer Allen and curators Øysten Ustvedt and Dr. Andreas Kroksnes.
Ane Graff,
Leaky Abstractions, 2008
Courtesy of the artist and
STANDARD (Oslo)
Ane Graff has been invited by Sara Arrhenius, Director of the Bonniers Konsthall in Stockholm, Sweden to exhibit within 'Life Forms', a project consisting of an exhibition, a publication and a series of seminars that displays works of artists who depict nature, the universe and the broader ecological contexts. Within the exhibition, Graff will present drawings from the series Silver Structure I-III, Leaky Abstractions, Structural Analysis (Dragonfly) I-III, the work Diffuse Nebula, together with new works. 'Life Form' is on view until 10 January 2010 and also presents works by Micol Assaël, Charles Avery, Rosa Barba, Andreas Eriksson, Tue Greenfort, Henrik Håkansson, Helen Mirra, Katie Paterson, Jani Ruscica and Tomas Saraceno.
Artist duo Elmgreen & Dragset is exhbiting within 'Anabasis. Rituals of Homecoming', taking place at the 19th century villa of German industrialist, Ludwik Grohman in Lodz, Poland, until 10 October. Part of the 'Festival the Dialogue of Four Cultures' and curated by Adam Budak, a guest at OCA'S International Visitor Programme in October 2007, 'Anabasis. Rituals of Homecoming' considers various dimensions of homecoming – between intimacy and public exposure, interiority and a monument, personal and collective mythologies.
From 19 November 2009 to 20 January 2010, Anne Szefer Karlsen and Heidi Nikolaisen participate in 'On Articulating Works & Places', an exhibition, conference and publication as part of Art in Marrakech Festival, taking place in various venues in Marrakech, Morocco. 'On Articulating Works & Places' is constructed on ideas relating to 'works as artistic projects' and to 'spaces of appearances'. Anne Szefer Karlsen has been invited to contribute with the production of the exhibition, as well as partake in the conference and publication. Heidi Nikolaisen will contribute to the exhibition with Sofia, a project with video, photography, text and objects that looks into personal stories as an opposition to the construction of History.
Sissel Tolaas has been invited to exhibit within 'sk-interfaces', at Casino Luxembourg, Luxembourg from 25 September to 10 January 2010. Curated by Jens Hauser, 'sk-interfaces' features works by artists reflecting on the way current technologies are changing our lives by progressively replacing natural interface in the skin. Within the exhibition, Sissel Tolaas will present the project Fear, in which she collects and displays the smell of different men who have nothing in common but the fear of body contact. Other exhibiting artists are ORLAN, Critical Art Ensemble and Yann Marussich.
Marit Følstad
The Last Day of Magic, 2009
Courtesy of the artist
From 25 September 2009 to 10 January 2010, Marit Følstad exhibits within 'The 21st Century, The Feminine Century, and the Century of Diversity and Hope', one of three curatorial projects that constitute the 2009 International Incheon Women Artists Biennale, Incheon, Korea. Curated by Heng-Gil Han, Curator, Visual Arts Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning, the exhibition aims to provide visitors with an opportunity to discuss various subjects related to questions of society seen from a feminine perspective. Within 'The 21st Century, The feminine Century, and the Century of Diversity and Hope', Følstad will exhibit a three-channel video work entitled Its All in My Head.
Peter Zorn, EMAN Coordinator and Chairman of Werkleitz – Centre for Media Art in Halle (Saale), Germany has invited Helene Sommer to exhibit within '.move', taking place at the European Media Art Network in Halle (Saale), Germany from 9 to 25 October. Within '.move', the artist will exhibit the video installation A Tale of Stone and Wood, in which the artist explores cinema with regard to its constructions of history, national identity and collective memory. Among other participating artists are Shu Lea Cheang, Paolo Cirio and Kurt D'Haeseleer.
Gisle Frøysland, in the contexts of Piksel Festival in Bergen, Norway, has been invited to develop two collaborations, in Canada and Europe. The curator has been invited for a ten-days workshop residency and a three-days conference at Banff Centre for the Arts, Banff, Canada. The projects bring together artists to share practices and further the understanding of open source hardware as an artist endeavour. In Eindholven, the Netherlands, Gisle Frøysland has been invited to participate in 'Piksel@Baltan', a part of the Baltan Laboratories' Blueprint research programme. The collaboration between the festival and Piksel festival will promote artist research and creation through interdisciplinariey exchange between artists and developers.
Flaggfabrikken – Center for photography and contemporary art – an artist collective based in Bergen working to promote camera based art – is offering an opportunity to undertake a two months residency in Bergen, Norway. The residency is open for artists, curators and art critics working within contemporary art and will take place either in March to April, May to June or September to October 2009. The residency offer the artist in residence: studio, accommodation, travel expenses paid and give a small grant towards covering other living expenses during the artist's stay. Deadline for application is 10 October. Please visit www.flaggfabrikken.net for more info.
Until 15 October Screen Festival is accepting entries to the festival's second edition in March 2010. Oslo Screen Festival is an international festival which began in 2008 with the aim of bringing together established and emerging artists working with video art to present their work to Oslo audiences. The purpose of the festival is to focus on experimental video works and to emphasise emerging poetics of the medium. An award of €1000 will be given to the best video. Please find regulation and entry form on the website www.screenfestival.no.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology seeks applications for a full-time Assistant Professor of Visual Arts, tenure track position. Applicants should be an artist who has strong skills and experience in teaching at the college, university or art school academic level and who has experience, knowledge and accomplishments in the fields of techno-aesthetic and/or techno-cultural art practice, especially in the areas of New Media and/or Media Performance. Minimum qualifications are Master of Fine Arts degree or equivalent, Emerging international recognition as a practicing artist, Experience teaching at the college, university or art school level, Skills, knowledge and accomplishments in technocultural, technoaesthetic and performative art practice and a strong interest in transdisciplinary collaboration, high knowledge in contemporary art practice, art history, art and media theory. More information can be found here.
School of Visul Arts, in New York, NY is accepting applications for the MFA Social Documentary Film. The programme provides a solid foundation in the fundamentals of nonfiction filmmaking, as well as an immersion into the critical and analytical processes necessary to conceptualize and develop significant, socially relevant film projects. For more information please visit http://www.mfasocdoc.sva.edu.
Verksted at New York Art Book Fair
2 to 4 October
OCA has been invited to participate in the New York Art Book Fair, Printed Matter's annual fair of contemporary art books, catalogues, artists'
books, art periodicals and fanzines, which will take place from 2 to 4 October at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City, Queens. The Fair
hosts over 200 international organisations, presenting a diverse range of contemporary art publications, as well as a special exhibition of books,
posters and ephemera by Richard Prince. For the Fair, OCA will present our publication Verksted, including Ü, by Olav Westphalen (no.10),
Populism and Genre (no.9, with contributions from, among others, Victor Burgin and John Karniauskas), Constructing the Political in
Contemporary Art (no.8, with contributions from Hito Steyerl and Éric Alliez) and Art of Welfare (no.7, with contributions from
Claire Bishop and Victor D. Norman).
*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.