The Ocean

With: Trond Ansten/Kåre Aleksander Grundvåg, Ei Arakawa, Sol Calero, Nina Canell, Em’kal Eyongakpa, Peter Fend, Fragment, Ina Hagen, Ayesha Hameed, Alma Heikkilä, INTERPRT, Susanne Kriemann, Giulia Mangione, Hans Ragnar Mathisen, Yuri Pattison, Willem de Rooij, Tabita Rezaire, Jorge Satorre, Bea Schlingelhoff, Susan Schuppli, Allan Sekula, Wolfgang Tillmans, Elin Már Øyen Vister, VUMA, Takako Yamaguchi, Explorations in Ocean Space II—Vest Land North Sea Blueprints (Bergen School of Architecture, teachers: Nancy Couling, Vibeke Jensen, Julia Morrissey) and selected documents and materials.

Over centuries, the city of Bergen has been largely defined by its relation to the sea. Situated on the Norwegian coast, halfway between the fishing grounds of Northern Norway and continental Europe, the city has developed as an international trading hub and today is one of the most important cities for the oil industries and maritime research. The Ocean at Bergen Kunsthall uses these diverse relationships to the sea as a starting point for a large-scale exhibition with works by artists and designers, research projects, and an extensive events programme. With some of the artistic projects taking place in public space, the exhibition makes use of the city, not only as a topic, but also as an arena in which art can initiate public discussions.

The future of the oceans has become one of the most pressing issues today due to intensification of human activities. Oceans are crucial providers of necessary and valuable resources and form a giant interconnected ecosystem. Many artists and designers are working on related questions of ecology, climate change and global geographies. The exhibition looks at oceans from a local perspective, starting from the city, its history and future—in which the ocean as a resource and infrastructure is deeply ingrained. Using specific fragments and locations, the exhibition investigates larger topics, such as the extraction of natural resources, the global circulation of goods, colonial histories and ocean life, as well as their impact on the everyday reality of the city. Artists and designers present projects that map the field of conflicts connecting to the topic of the sea: as a border and a medium of relations, as a resource and a hazard, as a concrete reality and a field of imagination.

New works include a monument for feminist evolution by Swiss artist Bea Schlingelhoff, a film installation about Svalbard by Susan Schuppli, and digital seascape sunrises driven by environmental data from Yuri Pattison. The collective VUMA produces an audio app that guides visitors to sites of colonial history in Bergen. Together with students at the Bergen Architectural School (BAS), Bergen Kunsthall produced an atlas of maritime industries.

The projects are based on research and take on various formats, as sculptures and installations, printed projects, photographs, painting, interventions or performative work. Some of the projects are realized at offsite locations, in public space or in collaboration with partners from non-art contexts. The exhibition in the galleries of Bergen Kunsthall presents further projects as well as historical works and thematic projects that give a background to the topic and approach. The exhibition functions as a starting point for a visit to the works in other locations, as a self-planned tour through some of the hidden aspects and areas of the city. Throughout the exhibition period, a dense program of public events, including talks, film screenings and workshops, will expand the topics of the exhibition discursively.

The exhibition is curated by Axel Wieder.

Programme:

Online opening ceremony
Saturday, August 28, 12pm
Venue: Online

Opening day
Saturday, August 28, 1–7pm
Open exhibition with free admission

The Ocean artist talks
Saturday, August 28, 2pm
Venue: Bergen Kunsthall & Online
With participating artists and guests

Ei Arakawa: Per Kirkeby & Iwaki Ocean’s Temporal Visit
Saturday, August 28, 5pm
Venue: Per Kirkeby sculpture Bergen, Thormøhlens gate/Nygårdsgaten, Florida, Bergen
Performance

Zoom: Allan Sekula, Noël Burch – The Forgotten Space, 2010
Tuesday, September 6, 6pm
Venue: Cinemateket Bergen
Film screening

Radio Hopes and Dreams presents:
Sonic waves for a social just ecological transition
Collaboration with Lydgalleriet and Bergen Kunsthall
Friday, September 10–Monday, September 13, and Wednesday, September 15
Livestream with Amber Ablett and Vikram Kolmannskog, Elin Már Øyen Vister, Hanan Benammar, Magdaléna Manderlová, Margrethe Kolstad Brekke, Karen Werner/Sabine Popp and others
Venue: Local FM radio and online stream
The streaming is kindly hosted by WaveFarm.org

Fragment: What we made by the sea
Thursday, September 16, 6pm
Venue: Under Puddefjordsbroen, Møhlenpris
Public conversation. 

Zoom: Thinking Water
Tuesday, September 21, 6pm
Venue: Cinemateket Bergen
Short film programme

Plattform: Ina Hagen
Saturday, October 2, 2pm
Venue: Bergen Kunsthall & online
Talk

Plattform: Sara R. Yazdani 
Wednesday, October 6, 8pm
Venue: Bergen Kunsthall & online
Talk

Serpent Rain (2016)
Thursday, October 7, 8pm
Venue: Bergen Kunsthall
Film screening and talk with Arjuna Neuman, Denise Ferreira Da Silva and VUMA (Sheila Feruzi and Christa Mako Teigen)

Cooking Sections – When [Salmon Salmon [Salmon]
Tuesday, October 12, 6pm, free
Venue: online
Talk

Plattform: Liquid Commons – Who Owns the Ocean?
Saturday, October 23, 2pm
Venue: Bergen Kunsthall & online
Discussion

Fragment: What we made by the sea
Thursday, October 28, 6pm
Venue: Bergen Kunsthall & online
Book presentation and conversation

Sol Calero Pavillion Programme
Visit our second site Casa Isadora during the warm autumn days in Byparken, just in front of Bergen Kunsthall. Casa Isadora is a site-specific tropical pavilion by Venezuelan artist Sol Calero. The pavilion is one of the public artworks shown as part of the The Ocean. It invites for reading and relaxation and will be used for smaller events during the exhibition.

The exhibition is supported by Bergesenstiftelsen, EGD, Fritt Ord, Grieg Foundation, Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen, Kulturrådet, MRC Skaland Graphite AS, Pro Helvetia, Sparebanken Vest, Sparebankstiftelsen SR-Bank, The Henry Moore Foundation, Westfal-Larsens Almennyttige Fond.