BERGEN.- 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.

Curated by Axel Wieder

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.