Six Norwegian artists have been invited to take part in the 16th Biennale of Sydney 2008, an international festival of contemporary art. This is the strongest participation from Norway in the Biennale of Sydney's history. The Biennale will display artworks between 18 June - 7 September 2008.
10/07/2008 ::
Participating artists from Norway are:
The theme of this year's Biennial suggests the impulse to revolt, a desire for change, and seeing the world differently. The Festival Revolutions - Forms That Turn exhibits works of approximately 180 historical and contemporary artists.
Vibeke Tandberg and Matias Faldbakken take part in the Biennial's online venue, an experimental space that encourages the public to discover and expand the universe of ideas.
Tandberg
Within the online venue, Tandberg exhibits the video Old Man Going Up and Down a Staircase (2003). Since her breakthrough in 1993, Tandberg has participated in exhibitions all over the world. Her work is represented at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the National Museum of Contemoprary Art in Oslo and other esteemed institutions in Paris, Oslo, Amsterdam and Copenhagen.
Faldbakken
Matias Faldbakken presents a slide show as a continuation of his recent image series Untitled (Young is Better Than Old)(2008).
aiPotu
The Norwegian artist aiPotu (Anders Kjellesvik and Andreas Siqueland) contributes two separate works, both related to aiPotu's ongoing Island Tour - a series of island expeditions.
Berg
Lene Berg has participated in a number of group exhibitions, solo shows and projects abroad, particulary in Spain and Germany, and has facilitated several workshops at art schools in Scandinavia.
Berg's project - The Drowned One - consists of a video and a series of images and objects, and deals with photographic paradoxes.
Hobøl
Annie Anawana Haloba Hobøl exhibits a new video and sound installation, which explores the personal experience of circularity, change and flux in the world today. In her new work, filmed in the Australian desert, she engages in the experiences and different perspectives of women from different cultures (an Aboriginal, an African and a woman of western descent).
Pushwagner
Hariton Pushwagner (Terje Brofoss) invented the name for himself in the 1970s. Hariton stands for Hari, as in "Hari Krishna", and Pushwagner in a reference to the shopping carts found in most supermarkets - appropriated by Brofoss as a jibe at consumer society.
Pushwagner has been working as a painter since the 1960s creating surreal worlds on canvas and paper. Pushwagner exhibits the paintings Klaxton II (2000), Self Portrait (1979), the pictorial novel Soft City (1968-1976) and the animation Soft City (2006-2008).
Office for Contemporary Art Norway
The 2008 Biennale of Sydney has been supported with a grant from the Office for Contemporary Art Norway, International Support Programme.
The Office for Contemporary Art Norway is a private foundation and was founded by The Norwegian Ministry of Culture and Church Affairs and The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Fall 2001. The main aim of the OCA is to develop collaborations in contemporary art between Norway and the international art scene. If you want more information about OCA, see link on the right side or send an email to info@oca.no