Coast Contemporary: Rugged, weathered, above the sea

Coast Contemporary is an annual contemporary art festival taking place aboard the ship Hurtigruten, Norway’s historic mail boat. Connecting the northern archipelago of Lofoten to the southern city of Bergen, Coast Contemporary acts as a unique social and discursive platform for the Norwegian art community that also expands its international ties.

For its second edition, Coast Contemporary explores the social, economic, and political values of the Norwegian landscape. Curated by Charles Aubin and titled Rugged, weathered, above the sea, this six-day program gathers artists, architects, curators, writers, and environmental scholars to explore Norway’s centuries-long construction of a national affinity for nature, and how a changing climate—both in the Nordic region and in areas from which tens of thousands of new arrivals have migrated—will transform cultural imaginations. This experiment into the “politics of landscape” unfolds through a daily program of performances, screenings, readings, panel discussions, lecture-performances, as well as pop-up exhibitions aboard and visits onshore in Lofoten, Trondheim, and Bergen. Rugged, weathered, above the sea builds upon the Romantic pictorial and literary construction of Norway through its landscape to question the enduring depiction of an untouched and limitless territory: a depiction at odds with the country’s oil production boom and its intensive fish farming industry.

The participants of Rugged, weathered, above the sea, Coast Contemporary’s second edition, include Richard Alexandersson, Hanan Benammar & Espen Sommer Eide, Kjetil Berge, Sissel M. Bergh, Siri Borge, Cooking Sections (Alon Schwabe & Daniel Fernández Pascual), Rhea Dall, Kristoffer Dolmen, A K Dolven, Anne Marthe Dyvi & Massimilliano Mollona, Ina Hagen, Tone Hansen, Silje Linge Haaland, Are Kalvø, Janike Kampevold Larsen, LCLA Office (Luis Callejas & Charlotte Hansson), Daisuke Kosugi, Randi Nygård, Marit Paasche, Marthe Ramm Fortun, Christian Tunge, Hanne Beate Ueland, and Timotheus Vermeulen.

Founded by Tanja Sæter, Coast Contemporary convenes practitioners from Norway and abroad to meet in a unique setting. Its first edition in September 2017 has resulted in more than 60 new national and international collaborations. For its 2018 edition more than 40 key Norwegian and international institutions join the trip. Additionally, this year, Bergen Art Book Fair, HEAVY books, MONDO books, and Lodret Vanret will set up an ephemeral art book fair onboard, offering passengers a broad overview of independent artist-run publications and printed matter from the circumpolar North.

Coast Contemporary is kindly supported by the Bergen Municipality, Fritt Ord, NORLA (Norwegian Literature Abroad), KORO (Public Art Norway), The Arts Council, The Stavanger Municipality, The Consulate General of New York, and The Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Partner institutions for this edition are Bergen Kunsthall, Galleri Knipsu, Kunsthall Trondheim, Maaretta Jakkuri Foundation, The North Norwegian Art Center (NNKS), National Museum of Decorative Arts and Design, Norwegian Textile Artists, Oslo Open, RAKE visningsrom, Rogaland Art Center, Sami Center for Contemporary Art, Standard (BOOKS), UKS / The Young Artist Society, Villa Lofoten, and VISP.