TRONDHEIM.- Continuing its commitment to developing art that confronts contemporary social narratives, Kunsthall Trondheim presents two ambitious solo exhibitions that question human and non-human agency.

Sin Wai Kin: Man’s World
January 23–March 16, 2025

Have you ever felt like you were living in someone else’s dream? In Sin Wai Kin’s first Norwegian solo presentation, Man’s World, audiences are challenged to consider how reality is shaped by storytelling—not only in what stories are told but also by who tells them and how. Through three interconnected film installations, the exhibition reveals narrative-making as a constructive world-building force that is never neutral.

Guests encounter four characters portrayed by the artist: “Wai King,” “V Sin,” “The Storyteller,” and “The Mask.” The exhibition opens with Essence (Digital Display) (2024), a satirical merchandising display featuring Wai King as the brand ambassador for a conceptual men’s cologne that promises self-realization. In a new co-commissioned film, The Time of Our Lives (2024), a sci-fi sitcom plays out before a “live” audience in a simulated television studio. Here, three of the exhibition’s characters, Wai King, V Sin, and The Storyteller, share a stage to enact comic and subversive scenes ranging from everyday encounters to cosmic contemplations. The final film installation, The Fortress (2024), follows a solitary figure who contemplates the historical, scientific, and social construction of the archetype of “Man” and then splinters into two characters, Wai King and The Mask. Shot in Lahore, Pakistan, the film uses stages of performance and rehearsal to exercise themes of knowledge, power, and identity at the boundary between the human and the inhuman.

Man’s World is supported by The Fritt Ord Foundation, SpareBank1 SMN Samfunnsutbytte, and Arts and Culture Norway.

The Time of Our Lives (2024) is initiated by Accelerator and co-produced with Kunsthall Trondheim, Canal Projects, and Blindspot Gallery, and supported by Vince Guo. Courtesy of the artist and Blindspot Gallery. The Time of Our Lives (2024) premiered in Stockholm at Accelerator in 2024, and tours to Kunsthall Trondheim, Canal Projects in New York, and Blindspot Gallery in Hong Kong in 2025.

Man’s World is organized by Adam Kleinman, and curated by Katrine Elise Agpalza Pedersen with Kleinman.

Liv Bugge: Umbilical Fire
April 4–September 14, 2025

In Umbilical Fire, Norwegian artist Liv Bugge explores the subtle yet profound connections linking energy, desire, and reproduction across human and non-human realms. Anchored by a newly commissioned film and installation, the artist challenges our perceptions of these integrated themes to ask: How do our energy concepts mirror our understanding of eroticism, sex, and nature?

The exhibition’s scenography surrounds the film, immersing visitors in a striking landscape of 3D-printed clay sculptures. These sculptures reveal underwater oil field environments across Norway, both literally and metaphorically exposing what lies beneath the surface. Through this combination, Bugge exposes energy companies’ attempts at “greenwashing” and “purplewashing,” including naming oil sources after feminist and folkloric figures.

Umbilical Fire is part of the 2025 edition of the Hannah Ryggen Triennale, a collaborative project across several Trondheim art institutions exploring the topic of “mater”—the Latin word for mother—which connects biological motherhood to our cultural heritage and physical world, reflecting how deeply the maternal is woven into our language through words like “matter,” “material,” and “mother earth.” Mining these subjects, Umbilical Fire features a symbolic nautical rope spun from sheep and dog wool, weaving together narratives of oil as modernity’s “mother’s milk,” Bugge’s personal history of being raised in a family including sled dogs, and the legacy of artist Hannah Ryggen, and her politically engaged tapestries.

Umbilical Fire is supported by Bergesenstiftelsen, The Fritt Ord Foundation, SpareBank1 SMN Samfunnsutbytte, Sparebankstiftelsen – SMN, and Arts and Culture Norway.

The Hannah Ryggen Triennale is initiated by Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum. Collaborating institutions are Dropsfabrikken, Kjøpmannsgata Ung Kunst (K-U-K), Kunsthall Trondheim, Trondheim kunstmuseum, Trøndelag senter for samtidskunst, and Ørland/Bjugn Kunstforening.

Umbilical Fire is curated by Adam Kleinman and Katrine Elise Agpalza Pedersen.