Opening Weekend of Lofoten International Art Festival 2024: SPARK

Devil’s kin (still), 2024. Video performance. Courtesy of Viktor Bomstand & Magnus Holmen.

Lofoten International Art Festival 2024
SPARKS
September 20, 2024 – October 20, 2024
nnks.no

North Norwegian Art Centre and LIAF Artistic Advisory Board are happy to announce the opening weekend of Lofoten International Art Festival—LIAF 2024, taking place September 20–22. LIAF 2024 is curated by Kjersti Solbakken and is titled SPARKS.

LIAF is the longest-running contemporary art biennial in Scandinavia. The nomadic festival will this year take place at nine different sites around the city of Svolvær. SPARKS is inspired by the history of the Lofoten Line: one of the world’s first experiments in wireless telegraphic communication—developed in Lofoten in the 19th century as a state-funded initiative which sought to make the Lofoten fishery a safer, and more efficient industry. The first wireless message was sent through the air from the newly built wooden transmitter mast at Sørvågen to the radio mast at the neighbouring island Røst. The Lofoten Line enabled communication about the movements of the skrei—the migrating cod that during the long, cold winter months travels from the Barents Sea to Lofoten to spawn.

The name “telegraph” is constructed from Ancient Greek meaning “writing at a distance” and the need to reach each other despite a harsh climate and great distances forced new technology and a network of spark stations, which form connecting lines into our own time. LIAF 2024 will constitute a vibrant network of temporary connections, investigating what the Lofoten Line could look like today.

The festival will consist of a large exhibition alongside a programme of lectures and readings, performances, concerts, workshops and talks spread across a number of venues:

KINOBOX / Havneterminalen / The Port Terminal: Fiskergata 23, 8300 Svolvær, Nordnorsk kunstnersenter / North Norwegian Art Centre: Torget 20, Svolvær Kunstforening / Svolvær Art Society: Sentrumsgården, Sivert Nilsens gate 26, Alti kjøpesenter / Alti Shopping Mall: Lofotgata 33, Vågan biblioteket / Vågan Public Library: Gymnasgata 13, Gamle Metodistkirken / The Old Methodist Church: Vestfjordgata 64, Kraftholmen: Vestfjordgata 96, Gamle Skarvikhallen / The Old Skarvik Hall: Vestfjordgata 94, Svinøya / Kjeøya, Bodø / NŌUA Storgata 56 (satellite venue).

Opening hours and venues
All venues in Svolvær: Tuesday–Sunday, 11–6pm
Opening weekend: Friday 7–9pm, Saturday–Monday: 11am–6pm

Where: Kraftholmen, Gamle Skarvikhallen (The Old Skarvik hall), Svolvær kunstforening (Svolvær Art Society), North Norwegian Art Centre, Gamle metodistkirken (The Old Methodist Church, Havneterminalen (The Port Terminal), Vågan bibliotek (Vågan Library), Alti Svolvær, Svinøya

Program for the opening weekend
Friday, September 20
All exhibition spaces will be open 7–9pm

Public program:
5pm: Parade from the main square of Svolvær
6pm: Official inauguration of LIAF 2024
9pm: Performance by Viktor Bomstad and Magnus Holmen
9:30pm: LIAF 2024 SPARKS extends into the night, Djs and party

Saturday, September 21
All exhibition spaces will be open 11am–6pm

Public program:
12-3pm: Island Eye Island Ear, Lofoten 2024
2:30pm: Artist presentations
3:30pm: Reading, Cuthwulf Eileen Myles
5pm: Concert, Elise Macmillan
6pm: Island Eye Island Ear, Lofoten 2024 roundtable
7pm: LIAF 2024 SPARKS extends into the night, Djs and party

Sunday, September 22
All exhibition spaces will be open 11am–6pm

Public program:
10am: Launch of Metode Vol. 3 Currents
11am: Curator Alison Burstein and Wong Kit Yi in conversation
11am-6pm: New films screening at KINOBOX
12: Island Eye Island Ear, Lofoten 2024
2pm: Artist talks
4pm: Lecture, performance, TBA

Curated by Kjersti Solbakken

Participating artists: ​Astrid Ardagh, Ayo, Birgit Hagen, Cuthwulf Eileen Myles, Dávvet Bruun-Solbakk, Elle-Hánsa/Keviselie/Hans Ragnar Mathisen, Elisabeth Brun, Elise Macmillan, Flis Holland, Ilija Wyller, Kameelah Janan Rasheed, KINOBOX (Ruth Aitken & Sarah Schipschack), Lilla Georgine Hansen, Livingstone Office for Contemporary Art – LoCA (Anawana Haloba, Kabila Kyowa Stéphane, Banji Chona, Bwanga “BennyBlow” Kapumpa, Pungwe Listening – Memory Biwa & Robert Machiri), Michael Tsegaye, Monica Edmondson, Morten Torgersrud + Ellisif Wessel, NODES Collective (Elisabeth Brun, Ivar Kjellmo, Gusztáv Hámos, Katja Pratschke, Nicole C. B. Pedersen, Rune Mikkelborg), NORDTING/Amund Sjølie Sveen, Simen Engen Larsen, Siri Hjorth & Sebastian Makonnen Kjølaas, Sissel Solbjørg Bjugn, Sørfinnset Skole/ the nord land, Viktor Bomstad & Magnus Holmen, Wong Kit Yi

Island Eye Island Ear, Lofoten 2024: You Nakai, Norimichi Hirakawa, Kei Komachiya, Hiroko Kimura-Myokam, Hirofumi Nakamoto, Katsuya Ishida, Daisuke Funato and everyone from SIAF Lab., Jacob Kirkegaard, Robert Monnier & Gill Eatherley, Margaretha Åsberg. Advisory board: Phil Edelstein, Composers Inside Electronics and Julie Martin, Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.). Island Eye Island Ear for Knavelskär, Sverige, originally conceived by David Tudor in 1974, in collaboration with Fujiko Nakaya, Jackie Matisse and Margaretha Åsberg. Produced by Billy Klüver and Julie Martin of E.A.T.

KINOBOX Program: Ruth & Alexander, Liv Strand, Valentina Alvarado Matos and Two Moon July, directed by Tom Bowes

About Island Eye Island Ear, Lofoten 2024 & roundtable
Saturday–Sunday, September 21–22, 2024, 12–3pm at Svinøya
Roundtable: Saturday, September 21, 6pm at Vågan Library

In 1974, American sound pioneer David Tudor (1926-1996) conceived an environmental concert, Island Eye Island Ear, which would reveal the natural elements existing on the island of Knavelskär in the Stockholm archipelago. Tudor, working with Billy Klüver (1927-2004) and Julie Martin (b. 1938) of Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.), invited artists Fujiko Nakaya (b. 1933), Jackie Matisse (1931-2021) and Margaretha Åsberg (b. 1939) to collaborate on the project. Despite several attempts over the years, David Tudor’s ambitious project Island Eye Island Ear was never realized during his lifetime. Fifty years later North Norwegian Art Centre and LIAF 2024 partnered with the collective SIAF LAB. and You Nakai, on one of two different interpretations of Island Eye Island Ear; one was developed for Kamome Island in Esashi, Hokkaido; the other for Svolvær in Lofoten. During the opening weekend of LIAF 2024, Island Eye Island Ear, Lofoten 2024 will be performed on the south-western part of Svinøya in Svolvær.

About Curator Alison Burstein and Wong Kit Yi in conversation
Sunday, September 22, 2024, 11–11:30am at North Norwegian Art Centre

A cross-institutional co-commission by New York’s The Kitchen and North Norwegian Art Centre, Wong Kit Yi’s work is informed by visits to sites associated with the Lofoten Line, and her research in The Kitchen’s Archives. Traveling to New York after its premiere in Lofoten, Wong’s work will appear in the exhibition Lines of Distribution at The Kitchen at Westbeth.