I am working in the field of visual arts but with an interdisciplinary approach. My projects often crystallise around a question, an interest, an observation or a challenge in a certain context. Other times I am closely connected to one specific medium, then using it becomes a natural habit, and a way of visual thinking in itself.
Conceptual arts, relational aesthetics, activism, and using multiple media, such as sculpture, painting, film making, performative work and photography are parts of my professional background, as I am educated and active in those fields since the early 90´s. I am interested in promoting and maintaining the relation between art and life. However I use to show my work in exhibitions and spaces dedicated to the arts, such work kan be done and mediated not just in studios, galleries or schools, but in any space where life is possible. I like to challenge conventional artistic practice by moving it into unusual or extreme environments, confronting it with the unfamiliar.
I like to apply such strategies within my educational work and curatorial projects.
Between 2000 and 2006 I have been taking art students to isolated places like deserted islands and mines, to develop artwork related to the experience of those environments. In those years I developed and applied a set of teaching methods, reviewed in public and inspiring other projects in the field of education until today.
educational work:
periodically I am lecturing, supervising or offering workshops in collaboration with art schools, universities and cultural institutions or within my own independent educational initiatives such as Temporary Academy.
I am a curious person, seeing the people I meet principally not as competitors but as potential partners and collaborators.
artistic peace- and conflict research, activism:
I am collaborating with artists, activists and scientists, researching potentials of artistic activity in conflict situations.
How can art be a way of approaching situations that otherwise seem to be contradictional or too complicated to relate to, and in which way would it make sense?
In collaboration with UIA a south Norwegian university, I have from 2017-19 been working with an educational program on the island of Lesbos, Greece, focussing on art that tries to relate to a humanitarian crisis. I am still working in that same environment with an ongoing research and documentary film project, offering lectures and screenings about it internationally.
To continue a branch the educational work on Lesbos, I am looking for new producers and partners.
ecology and sustainability:
On one or another level, most of my projects include or target awareness of nature and ecology, seeking for sustainable approaches within art, life and society.
In the same time I try to implement sustainable ways of travelling into projects I am involved in. Examples are a recent seminars about "sustainability and art" for Platform Nord/United, a Nordic-British symposium and festival for young artists, and a one-week transformation workshop at Preus National Museum of Photography, Norway.
My own initiative Temporary Academy included workshops and lectures such as "ecological economy and ethics" and community based activities mend to reflect and to practice sustainability in real life, by promoting food-activism, initiating soup kitchens, planting gardens in public space or fishing bicycles.
To me working in the field of arts is not just about producing beautiful things, big theories, or prestigious representations which I think we do have enough of, but it means working in a space where hope is still possible. In working with art, learning-processes and creativity, we might find ways to approach problems in unexpected ways, and to transform something that first looks useless or even negative into something that can work and benefit in an unexpected way.
Artistic activity has in my opinion a potential to start transforming thoughts into action, even it often begins with small things, doing things instead of only talking, claiming or complaining. It may have good effects on those involved when participation and realisation is possible.
