AVE
Norway 2009 – curator Mona Bentzen
at V.I.P.Art Gallery, SKC, Belgrade, Serbia
PROGRAM
ÒMade in NorwayÓ – total duration 01:05:37
1
Sabina Jacobsson - Womens Voice of Iran (2007) - 13:00
Iranian women living in Norway, telling
their story from the revolution in Iran 1979 till today. The women have lived
in Norway from six months to twentyfive years. My idea with the video was to
give these women a voice out. It can still be dangerous for them to comment on
the Iranian regime even though they have lived in Norway for many years. Their
names will not be mentioned in the video for security reasons. One of the women
has also chosen to wear a mask.
Sabina Jacobssen. 1967 Visby, live and work in Oslo. Working with video, live art
and installations. Student of Academy of Fine Arts in Trondheim «96-00.
Soloshows at f ex. LuleŒ Art Center in Sweden, Nordnorsk Art Center in Svolv¾r,
Gallery F15 in Moss. Participated in videoprograms at f ex. Paralelas y
Meridianos in Buenos Aires, FIFVC in Beirut, Next Festival in Vilnius. Has
received many grants in Norway. Awarded with Next Festival Video Price 2006 in
Vilnius for best consept.
2
Bull.Miletic - Par Hasard (Eng. By Chance) (2009) – 05:45
Par Hasard explores the Eiffel TowerÕs symbolic relationship to its ethereal physicality. Sequences in the video are shifting between the wide shots of the stroboscopic lit tower at night and the tracking shots from within the towerÕs structure during the daytime. The video opens with the two sentences; ÒNo, the past is fantastic²Ó, ÒNo, the future is fantastic!Ó. Negotiation between contradictory meanings, emotions and times continues throughout the video in a similarly ambiguous manner, primarily via cutaway shots. The video embraces formal qualities of the 60Õs American pop art and French avant-garde cinema. The soundtrack, reinforced by long periods of silence, enhances the hallucinatory atmosphere of the video. 
Bull.Miletic
is the name of the collaborative team of Synne Bull (Norway) and Dragan Miletic
(Serbia). Bull.Miletic exhibit their video installations internationally at
venues including the Henie Onstad kunstsenter, Norway, Whitney Museum of
American Art's Artport, New York, Pasadena Museum
of California Art, Victorian Arts
Center, Melbourne, Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley,
Walter and McBean Galleries, San Francisco, MoCa, Los Angeles, Transmediale,
Berlin and IMPAKT, Ultrech, The Netherlands. Bull.Miletic received professional
grants from the San Francisco Arts Commission, Norwegian Cultural Council, The
Norwegian Young Artist Association, Nordic Institute for Contemporary Art,
Office for Contemporary Art Norway and Stockholm Cultural Council, among
others. http://bull.miletic.info
3
Karima
Risk and Linda Saveholt – The Wall (2008) – 3:00
A woman is washing the dishes at her kitchen. Her
husband seeks some attention, and her father in-law plans how to build up the
wall that is missing.
Karima
Risk and Linda Saveholt both have a Master-degree from
the Academy of Fine Arts in Trondheim, Norway. They have participated at filmfestivals in Barcelona,
Moscow, San Francisco, Sofia and Oslo, and they will have there second
solo-show together at FŠrgfabriken Norr in Sweden this year.
4
Birgitte
Sigmundstad- How to explain direct action to a live rabbit (2007)-6:45
An image of an ALF (Animal Liberation Front) member
is the starting point for this film. The monologue is based on texts from
Herbert Marcuse, John Zerzan and an article called How to explain terrorism to
your child.
Birgitte
Sigmundstad is born 1969, Norway. Education: BA honours from
The Surry Institute of Art & Design (1995-1998). Solo Exhibitions:
Stenersen museum, UKS, Oslo and Troms kunstforening. Groupe exhibitions: UKS,
Preus Museum, Grimstad Shortfilmfestival, Eurodok. Received Einar Granums Art
award in 2007. www.birgittesigmundstad.com
5
Per
Teljer – The Samaritan (2000) – 4:00
On 12 th September 2009 was the German family
father Dominik Brunner beaten up to the death by two adolescents in the
S-Bahnhof Solln outside Munich when he intervened when these tried rob two
children. This took place when about twenty witnesses where present without any
intervened.The Samritan is a criticism/soul-searching of our embedded cowardice
and convenience. The fact that it was made for nine years ago (2000) and has
not been demonstrated to any significant extent lacking for my own part. I
regret to say that this themes never out of date. Which the events in Solln is
a tragic proof of importance.
Per
Teljer studied at the Academy of fine art in Trondheim
(92-97). In the mid-nineties member of the Swedish-Norwegian video group Sunny Heart Videos (93-97). During the last ten years he has
exclusively been working with longer, narrative, script based video/film
productions. Lives and work in Berlin and Trondheim where he holds the position
of associate professor at the Academy of fine art. www.teljer.com
6
Bj¿rn E.
Pettersen – Eddy Baby (2009) – 1:23
The view over Oslo (formerly Christiania) seen
from a place not far from where Edvard Munch was inspired to make his most
famous painting "The Scream".
Theme; angst and existentional states. Angst as
setbacks in time. Time standing still and/or setting you back. Blurry
introspectiveness interrupted by the Angst that stab like a lightning bolt,
unpredictable. The title is taken from a Monty Python sketch where a famous
filmmaker called Sir Edward is being insulted by an interviewer, calling him
amongst other things "Eddy Baby". In this case "Eddy" is
referring to "Edvard" (Munch).
Bj¿rn
E. Pettersen is born
1960 in Oslo, Norway. Self-taught musician, composer and arranger. Played and
recorded with several Norwegian rock bands since the early Eighties. Have been
working with video and photography since 2006. Screenings: …rebro International
video art festival 2008, Sweden, Ó(PAM) NORDIC – Part 1Ó at Utsikten
Kunstsenter, Kvinesdal, Norway.
7
Margarida Paiva - Fragments from an Unknown Woman
(2008) – 8:40
In Fragments from an
Unknown Woman a female narrator is telling about another woman, about her fears
and memories, while random images of rooms, parks and streets flow through the
story. The characters remain unknown, seen only in glimpses or heard only
through fragmented dialogues. The video explores mental and emotional disorders
by reflecting on questions such as the need to change the present but remaining
in the past and the difficulty of expressing oneÕs feelings.
Margarida Piava was born in Portugal in 1975, currently living and working in Oslo.
Studied at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Oporto and at the Academy of Fine Arts
in Oslo. Her video works are based on fragmented stories that explore inner states
of mind resembling dreams and memories. Melancholy, loneliness and fear are
subjects that always remain in these works and are expressed through poetic
imagery.
8
Farhad Kalantary - Moving Target (2007) – 02:00 ÒMoving TargetÓ is a short video that is the crossing point of many different events and currents. It carries the memories of Jasper JonesÕ ÒTargetÓ. It has the taste of Andy WarholÕs ÒBananaÓ. It has a sense of Paul VirilioÕs Dromology, and it bears witness to the accident of cancer. It was recorded through my window, in a winter day in Oslo, at the time of yet another war.
Farhad Kalantary (Tabriz, Iran, 1962) is a visual artist working primarily
with non-narrative films and video installations. He has studied at San
Francisco State University (BA, 1992) and San Francisco Art Institute (MFA, 1996)
and he is now based in Oslo, Norway. His works have been shown in various
international film festivals as well as in galleries and museums in the US and
Europe, and they are part of the collections of Moderna Museet, Stockholm, and
the Arts Council Norway. He is a co-founder and the leader of artist run space
Atopia in Oslo. www.atopia.no
9
Mona
Bentzen – Made of Water (2008) – 2:21
Water is in perpetual motion and reflect on
surfaces using sunlight. Made of water is made of the reflections of water and
transformed into non-figurative visual music.
Mona
Bentzen works with video and installation and as a
curator/producer: http://duerher.anart.no
/ www.artvideoexchange.com She
was educated at the Bergen National Academy of the Arts, University of Volda,
media and TV/Film/ Animation. Video and documentary screening, f.ex Art Museum
KUBE, Norwegian Broadcasting NRK TV 1, 7th Art Film Festival,
Slovakia, Laznia Centre for Contemporary Art, Polen, Pasadena Museum of
California Art. She is the founder of Art Video Exchange.
10
Jannicke LŒker - Sunday Mornings (2007) – 09:00
Sunday Morning is a video about a woman coming home
after a heavy-drinking night out. The scene is 9 minutes and describes the
womanÕs slowmoving journey from the front door of her flat to the bedroom. The
video shows an independent person that finds herself in a comical but
humiliating state. As a result of
tiredness and a heavy consumption of alcohol, the woman is, through a banal
incident, exposed for a mortal situation in her home. The video is about
loneliness and death-drive.
Jannicke LŒker lives and work in Berlin. Mainly works with video and
performance. Studied at the Academy of Fine art in Trondheim (93-97). Solo exhibitions at Kunstlerhas
Bethanien in Berlin, DUMBO in NYC and Stenersen Museum in Oslo. Exhibited at
the Whitney Museum in NYC and Modern Museum in Stockholm. Last year received
the Terje Vigen and Critic Award (Grimstad) and nominated for the Arte Short
Film Award 2009 and received the Guaranty Grant for Artist. www.jannickelaker.com/
11
Risto
Holopainen - PEK (2007) - 6:00
A lot of symbolic hand-waving going on.
Yet this is not a speech in sign language. In Scandinavian languages, PEK is
the root of a word that means, Òto point atÓ. In Norwegian, it has the
additional meaning of 'prank'. PEK was realized in 2007, with Risto Holopainen
as the hands, composer and editor, in collaboration with Vivild Bergersen,
choreographer, and Camilla W¾renskjold, camera.
Risto Holopainen was born in 1970 in
Sweden. He studied composition at
the Norwegian State Academy of Music,
followed by studies in musicology. Currently he pursues a PhD project on
adaptive synthesis at the University of Oslo. His compositions include both
electro acoustic and instrumental music for concert, dance and radio plays, but
he has also made computer animations and video. His Garbage Collection appeared
as the first release on Mere records in 2008. risto.holopainen@imv.uio.no http://folk.uio.no/ristoh/
12
Martin Skauen - Felix Culpa, A Handmade Massacre
(2007) – 5:06
The video is like an animated Judgement
Day - a grotesque and violent universe where people are divided into two
categories; those who eat and those who are eaten...! With his distinctive
technique he leads the camera across the large-scale drawing and create the
illusion of movement in a never-ending claustrophobic room. In Felix Culpa, Skauen
has created a frightening dark and self-annihilating world - a world totally
out of order, inhabited by the most primitive and destructive forces.
Martin Skauen is educated at the
National Academy of Fine Arts, Oslo, 1998-2002 and M¿lla Art School, Moss
1996-1998. Residency: Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, 2008. Exhibitions
include: 1st Athens Biennial, Frankfurter Kunstverein, G¿teborg Kunsthall,
Laura Bartlett Gallery (London), Galleri MGM (Oslo), Mihai Nicodim Gallery,
(L.A.), Kunstlerhaus Bethanien (Berlin), Galleri F-15 (Moss) and UKS, (Young
Artist Society). www.martinskauen.com