BERGEN.- The Executive Board of Bergenstriennalen AS announced that Ingrid Haug Erstad has been appointed General Manager and Director of Bergen Assembly. Erstad has acted as interim director since the fall of 2018 and asserted herself a strong contender for the position - a six-year fixed term appointment.

Erstad holds a Master’s degree from the University of Bergen and is educated as an art historian and curator. She started her career at Bergen Kunsthall and later moved to Berlin. From there, she has acquired broad experience and knowledge of the international art field, with projects in Europe and the US. In fall 2018, she took charge of Bergen Assembly in the run-up to its third edition, titled Actually, the Dead Are Not Dead (2019).

“I am delighted that we will get Ingrid in on a permanent basis and have high expectations for Bergen Assembly under her leadership. Her strong organizational skills and unique ability to communicate and collaborate with Bergen Assembly’s conveners has been and is crucial to our success,” says Stein Olaf Onarheim, Chairman of the Executive Board.

“Ingrid has succeeded in creating a professional environment in which the most challenging curatorial and artistic visions could not only be realized, but thrive and reach multiple publics, both locally and internationally. As interim director, she has developed exciting and forward-looking ideas about how to continue building the unconventional institutional infrastructure of Bergen Assembly. Together with my colleagues on the Advisory Board, I greatly look forward to continuing working with her on this path,” says Maria Hlavajova (Utrecht) who, together with Solveig Øvstebø (Chicago) and Gabriele Horn (Berlin), has assisted the Executive Board in the hiring process.

The position had more than 25 highly qualified applicants from all over the world. The Executive Board’s decision came after a comprehensive process that included interviews with nine international candidates.


“I look very much forward to keep developing this ascending and well-reputed institution,” says Erstad. “It will be a great pleasure to manage the next edition of Bergen Assembly all the way from start to finish.”

Bergen Assembly, one of Norway’s most important international visual art arenas, is organized every three years by the City of Bergen-owned association Bergenstriennalen AS. Together with its international Advisory Board, Bergen Assembly appoints one or more conveners to engage a broad field of art practitioners from all over the world, in collaboration with the local art scene. With emphasis on longer time-frames for development and production as well as innovative formats, Bergen Assembly is an agile, flexible institution that welcomes new artistic approaches to the critical concerns of today’s world.