Other Events & Exhibitions

ATOPIA at Festival Miden, Greece (July 2012)

ATOPIA presents a 68-minute screening program dedicated to the history of film & vide -art in Norway in Festival Miden, Kalamata, Greece. Curated by Farhad Kalantary this program brings together a number of key historical works produced between 1960 and 90 in Norway. These works were part of ATOPIA’s larger survey exhibition Retrospective: Film & Video Art Norway, 1960-90.

The presentation of ATOPIA in Festival Miden 2012 is

kindly supported by the Norwegian Embassy, The Office for Contemporary Art Norway (OCA) and the Norwegian Institute in Athens.

Highlights-RetrospectivePart1.pdf

ATOPIA at MK Gallery, UK (Aug-Sept 2012)

ATOPIA presents an exhibition program dedicated to the history of film & vide -art in Norway in MK Gallery Milton Keynes, UK.

Curated by Farhad Kalantary this program brings together a number

of key historical works produced between 1960 and 90 in Norway. These works were part of ATOPIA’s larger survey

exhibition Retrospective: Film & Video Art Norway, 1960-90.

ATOPIA's presentation at MK Gallery is partly sponsorede by the Office for Contemporary Art Norway (OCA).

The new location of ATOPIA

ATOPIA's new Gallery space located on the riverside in Lilleborg (Oslo) was opened on Saturday, 12, May 2012.

The Gallery in line with the rest of ATOPIA projects is devoted to the presentation, screening and exhibition of artists’ film and video works from around the world.

ATOPIA, Ivan Bjørndals gate 34, 0472 Oslo

The new space was inaugurated bythe performance of

sound artist Alexander Rishaug.

This event marked the 9th anniversary of ATOPIA.

Atopia is pleased to invite you to a special event for video art presentations & discussions by 11 Artists/Curators from 8 different countries.

This event will see the screenings of 55 works selected by 11 artists/curators who are based in Hong Kong, Russia, USA, Lebanon, Serbia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Germany and Norway.

Each curator will present his/her program followed by questions and discussion. During the two days of “Art Video Exchange at Atopia” the participants will focus on discussing challenges that face the practice of artist/curators working independently or within artist-run organizations.

Still from Locust by Victric Thng

Atopia has invited Mona Bentzen from AVE to orgainize this event and produce a program involving artists/curators from different countries who are working with Art Video Exchange network.

AVE is a network initiative between artist/curators. It organizes opportunities for video artists and promotes the production and circulation of international video programming. AVE works to foster a greater appreciation of video art and an exchange of ideas between artists, curators and audiences worldwide.

Atopia has also invited the Artist/curator group LOCUS to present a second program of video works from Norway. LOCUS is an art and curator group established in 2006 by Thale Fastvold and Tanja Thorjussen.

Refreshments and light meal will be served during the event.

- Entry is free of charge but space is limited, we recommend making reservation. Please send an email to info(AT)atopia.no to book your sit for Friday and/or Saturday.

Program for Friday, 3 June from 19:00 to 22:00:

What If Artist Group - www.what-if.hk

Hong Kong: Vik Lai and Beatrix Pang

Art Video Exchange – www.artvideoexchange.com

Lebanon, Beirut: Eli Souaiby

USA, New York: Madeline Djerejian

CYLAND MediaLab – www.cyland.ru

St. Petersburg, Russia: Vika Ilyushkina

Program for Saturday, 4 June from 16:00 to 19:00

namaTRE.ba project - www.namatre.ba

Trebinje, Bosnia & Herzegovina: Igor Bošnjak

Festival Signes de Nuit - www.signesdenuit.com

Germany: Dieter Wieczorek

Art Video Exchange - www.artvideoexchange.com

Serbia, Belgrade: Romic

Norway, Oslo: Mona Bentzen

Locus - www.locusart.org

Norway, Oslo Thale Fastvold and Tanja Thorjussen

still from Heliocentric by Semiconductor

Language-cinema

a presentation by Veronika Reichl

Sunday, 29 Nov. 2009 at 17:00

Atopia is pleased to host a special presentation of works by the artist/writer Veronika Reichl.

Language-cinema is a series of experimental animated short films about the language of philosophy. Each film works with an original text passage by authors like Spinoza, Foucault and Wittgenstein. The project explores the sensual and the nonsensical aspects of the construction of meaning in philosophical texts.

Veronika Reichl is an artist and writer from Berlin, who is currently working as a guest researcher at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design. Her book and DVD of short films on the relationship between linguistic and pictorial information, called “Sprachkino” [Language-cinema] was published in 2008 by merz & solitude. She received her PhD in the field of artistic research in 2008 from the University of Portsmouth.

Winter is the first photographic installation work on Atopia’s Vitrine.

The installation is comprised of 144, A3 size photographs mounted directly on the windows of Atopia. They are left outside at the mercy of weather conditions as well as the public behavior. These photographs are now collecting the residues of a 30-day exhibition period and becoming naturalized on the side of the street.

The Finissage of the exhibition will celebrate its final shape and development.

Images from a presentation by Ina Blom:

Atopia, April 2008

OsloOpen2007

“Facing Differences” was the title of 5 Video Programs curated and produced for Oslo Open 2007 by Atopia. (3-13 May 2007)

Please See:

http://www.osloopen.no/index.cfm?id=134181

http://www.osloopen.no/index.cfm?id=134303

http://www.osloopen.no/index.cfm?id=134302

http://www.osloopen.no/doc/oo-kunstfilmprogram.pdf

“Incidence Room”

A video installation by Greg Pope

Sound by Benedict Drew

Saturday, 26 Nov. (12-18) &

Sunday, 27 Nov. (12-17)

Fragmentary in nature, Greg Pope’s digital haiku’s create sequences that are continually shifting, a piece that is allowed to evolve beyond the last edit.

This is a work of possible conjunctions and associations, the meanings of which can be as plentiful as the number of viewers.

ATOPIA presents:

Bring a Friend

A film program & presentation by Alice Goudsmit

Saturday 28th of January from 18-20

& Sunday the 29th from 15-17

Bring a Friend is a program consisting of 14 films about cultural and geographical landscapes:

a nuclear power plant in Lithuania, a Volvo driver in Sweden, towers in Stockholm, a teahouse in Berkeley, a cruise trip, landscapes, cowboys, national flags and more.

The filmprogram was curated by the Berlin based art historian and writer Alice Goudsmit in the context of the exhibition Botschaften at the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Berlin March 2005.

Bring a Friend :

Farhad Kalantary: Tea House, 2003, 4:00

Maren Juell Kristensen: My friend, 2002,2:39

Tomas Eriksson: Volvo Driver 7:30

Mai Hofstad Gunnes: The City Hall, 2004, 3:12

Siri Harr Steinvik&Ignas Krunglevicius: Is that all there is, 2004, 8:00

Inger Lise Hansen: Adrift, 2004, 9:00

Anne-Britt Rage: A Thousand reasons why to become a socialist. Part I, 2004, 3:80

Ane Lan: Europe, 2004, 4:10

Aurelija Maknyte: The Flag, 8:00

Mariken Kramer: En av gutta, 2004,1:32

Mattias Härenstam:(Untitled) Raining Stones, 2004, 3:34

Jannicke Låker: Sketch for a rape scene, 2003, 8:30

Tom Wolseley: Cowboy, 2004, 4:00

Unn Fahlstrøm: L’ànnée derniére, 2004, 10:00

Total Time approx. 75:00

Sponsored by Danish Arts Council & Norsk kultuuråd

ATOPIC

An exhibition of video works in Akerhus Kunstnersenter curated by Atopia:

AKERSHUS KUNSTNERSENTER (LILLESTRØM)

From 18 to 25 May 2005

Presentation and discussions

Sunday 22 May 2005 at 15.00

Film and video works by:

Asli Sungu

Christian Bermudez

Farhad Kalantary

Guri Guri Henriksen

Inger Lise Hansen

Lasse Heggen

Linn Kirkener

Magdalena Paiva

Michel Pavlou

Samira Jamouchi

Ömer Ali Kazma

From the Greek atopon, (literally out of place), atopic characterizes what is not conditioned by territorial boarders. It refers to an entity whose position is in constant change. R.Barthes defines it as "in between”; between the words (the meaning of a text), between the lovers (the tragic nature of Eros), between the frames (the cinematic representation). "Atopic" never reveals a tangible presence. It is percieved as a whole only throgh reconstitution, when all the words have been said, when all the frames have been captured.

It becomes present when it's allready past. In this regard, dealing with the moving image is dealing with the "atopic". It is like building, step by step, frame by frame, the very precise contour of the same elusive absence.

Atopia in collaboration with Office for Contemporary Art Norway presents:

Amar Kanwar

Film screening / discussion with the artist

Thursday, 6 May 2004 at 19:00

Lakkegata 75 - 0562 Oslo

Amar Kanwar (born 1964) is an independent film maker working from New Delhi, India . His films were exhibited at DOCUMENTA 11 and in several international film festivals.He has received the Golden Gate Award at the San Francisco International Film Festival, 1999 for 'A Season Outside’, the Golden Conch at the Mumbai International Film Festival 1998 for 'A Season Outside', the Jury's award at Film South Asia-Kathmandu in 2002 for his film 'King of Dreams' and The Grand Prix at EnviroFilm 2002, Slovak Republic for the film FREEDOM.Other exhibitions have been at the The Renaissance Society, Chicago, the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art - Geneva, the Tensta Konsthall -Stockholm, Fri-art Centre d'art Contemporain Kunsthalle - Fribourg, the Werkleitz Biennale - Kassel, the Whitechapel Art Gallery, London and the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Atopia no.4

Saturday 13.03.2004 at 15:00

"Loneliness and Globalisation"

The force-field between a term full of emotions and a term full of reason!

A gathering, Film viewing and Discussions, with the students at dept. of History of Ideas in Goteborg University.

Atopia no.3

13-16 Feb. 2004

KRIMSKRAMS by: Martin Slaatto

Presentation of a performance work in progress.

Atopia no.2

Lørdag 13 Dec. 2003

Electronic Sound Performance by: Alexander Rishaug.

Atopia no.1

29 Nov - 9 Dec 2003

The opening exhibition of Atopia showing the Film,Video & photo works of the funding members of Atopia:

Annebeth Grundtvig Hansen

Inger Lise Hansen

Farhad Kalantary

Michel Pavlou

AN EXHIBITION OF VIDEO INSTALLATIONS BY:

Haraldur Karlsson

Dimitri Lurie

Tor Jørgen van Eijk

Opening: Thursday 13 March at 19:00 (14 - 28 March 2014)

Finissage: Friday, 28 March at 19:00

With Inger Lise Hansen in Conversation with the artists

“In place of a hermeneutics we need an erotics of art.” Susan Sontag’s most challenging slogan is the ending note of her ten commandments: Against Interpretation.

On this note Atopia wishes to invite you to an exhibition of video installations by three Oslo based artists whose works indicate intense engagement and exploration of various aspects of the moving image.

The exhibition and its treatment of art works aim at highlighting “erotics of art” and pick up where Sontag left behind 50 years ago. In other words to rescue art from the grip of interpretation, or at least make an attempt.

We live at a time when art works are aggressively instrumentalised in every possible direction and they are commodified in every imaginable position. It has become more than a challenge to speak against interpretation. What we call art today is buried under tones of linguistic debris and commercial interests.

But the irony of the situation is that we are all involved in this process; all of us admirers who speak on behalf of art. Whether it is a philosopher, an art critic, an art historian or someone from another interpretive discipline does not matter. All contribute as much as they can to increase the heavy load of interpretation.

And we often forget to ask whose challenge is this to set up a barrier to slow down or counter this flow? Who is going to take the risk of speaking against interpretation today? Is this the task of art institutions, the museums and commercial galleries and such? Is it the job of another philosopher? Or is this the responsibility of the independent artist and artist initiatives? The answer is clear. But they say our wings are clipped away!

The works in this exhibition belong to a group of artists who have been working primarily with the moving image for more than a decade. Departing from the everyday images their works are highly manipulated and transformed into abstractions that defy interpretations.

These are three of Oslo’s most resilient artists, highly specialized in moulding their own images of duration.

Dimitri Lurie: Ginger Space Waltz, 2012

Haraldur Karlssen: Brain, 2014

Tor Jørgen van Eijk: Non-narrative Linear Logic, 2008-10

Haraldur Karlsson (1967, Reykjavik, Iceland) holds a diploma in Mixed-Media from the Icelandic art school in Reykjavik and BA diploma in Media-Art from AKI Enchede, Holland. Further to this he studied Sonology over 3 years in the Royal Conservatorium Den Haag under the guidance of professor Clarence Barlow. For many years Karlsson worked at the Icelandic Academy of Arts as the head of Media-Lab, which he had designed. Karlsson has had exhibitions, performances and lectures in Iceland, Holland, Belgium, England, Czech Republic, Finland and Norway. He is currently based in Oslo and works on several video-art commissions. More info is available on his website www.haraldur.net

Dimitri Lurie (1970, Leningrad) is a visual artist working with film, video and photography. He has a degree in Cybernetics from St-Petersburg Polytechnic University and later studied Philosophy and Theology at the Institute for Philosophy and Religion (1997). Lurie is a self taught artist and since 1998 has been working with film and video. He was a guest artist at The National Academy of Fine Arts in Oslo (2001) and he is the curator of the international art exchange project “Cultural Transit”. Lurie’s works have been shown and awarded in various international film festivals and art institutions. He lives and works in Oslo. For more information, please see: www.dodofilm.org

Tor Jørgen van Eijk (1977, Cali, Colombia/Bergen) received his Diploma from The National Academy of Fine Arts in Oslo in 2004. Since then he has worked actively as an artist exhibiting both in Norway and abroad. His works have been part of Gallery exhibitions, international video festivals and art fairs. Van Eijk works as an artist/curator and lives and works in Oslo.

UNTITLED - E

Linn Lervik

Opening: Friday 14 Nov. at 19:00

(14 Nov. - 5 Dec. 2014)

Atopia is pleased to invite you to an exhibition of a new work by Linn Lervik.

Linn Lervik (Tønsberg, 1976) studied fine art at Central Saint Martins College in London and later at Chelsea College of Art and Design, graduating with a degree in Sculpture (BFA, 2001).

Lervik’s works are the meeting place of various media. She works with the combination of drawing, animation, sculpture, space, light and sound. Her works embody symphonic coexistences of media that are mixed and yet singular.

Using the building blocks of drawing, sculpture and video her media merge, attack, reflect upon, criticize and expand each other.

Working on this exhibition Lervik had occupied Atopia Gallery as her own studio for more than a month. The resulting work is an installation that started with transforming the normal gallery pedestal into the artwork itself.

We had agreed that there should be no deadline for the completion of the work. When the work decides it is ready the studio became the gallery.

Linn Lervik lives and works in Oslo. She has been one of the main forces behind the artist initiative Atopia since 2006, working both as an artist and a curator.

ATOPIA Open

As part of OsloOpen 2016 Atopia will keep its new space at Soria Moria building open during the weekend.

Sat-Sun 16-17 April 2016, from 12:00 to 18:00

ATOPIA OPEN

As part of OsloOpen 2014 Atopia will be open this weekend.

Sat-Sun 26-27 April 2014, from 12:00 to 18:00

TRILOGY

Inger Lise Hansen

Thursday 24 January, 2013 at 18.00

ATOPIA and Studio Fjordholm invite you to a special event presenting the new book and DVD by Inger Lise Hansen. Trilogy - Inger Lise Hansen will be presented along with screening of her three films Proximity (2006), Parallax (2009) and Travelling Fields (2009).

The event will take place on the side of group exhibition Propeller: the 1990's in ATOPIA Gallery, where Hansen’s earlier work Static (1995) is also on exhibit.

Inger Lise Hansen is a visual artist with background in experimental film and animation who for the last two decades has produced a distinctive and acclaimed body of moving image work.

This publication presents her recent film trilogy, Proximity (4 mins, 2006), Parallax (5 mins, 2009) and Travelling Fields (9 mins, 2009); a series of spatial deconstructions using disorientating perspective and animation to foreground landscape and architectural

elements across a series of diverse locations, from a shopping centre in Linz to the deserted landscapes of north-western Russia. The films (DVD) are accompanied by specially commissioned texts by Nicole Hewitt, Stefan Grissemann and Trude Schjelderup Iversen.

“Hansen’s films are fundamentally simulations; feigning naturalness, continuity and movement, as veritable perversions of the ”organic”: In them, the sky becomes sea, a low point, a base. They quite literally portray a world on the brink, a realm of condensed time and strained space.” Stefan Grissemann

Published by:

Fjordholm filmproduksjon (www.fjordholm.no) and Lux, London (www.lux.org.uk)

with support from:

Arts Council Norway, Office for Contemporary Art Norway (OCA), Norwegian Film Institute, and Fond for Lyd og Bilde

MECHANICA VISIONEM

Federico Campanale (nl)

Mihai Grecu (ru)

Petrina Hicks (au)

Curated by: Michel Pavlou

Opening: Friday 19 Oct. 2012 at 19:00 (19 Oct – 1 Nov 2012)

Mechanica visionem is the assembly of three video works gathered from around the world for an ATOPIA exhibition curated by Michel Pavlou.

The assemblage characterizes some of the current trends in contemporary video art in terms of technique, approach and thematic. Having employed elaborate production and post-production procedures these works build an exhilarating Cinematic image for the constrained screen of the Gallery. As they challenge the "big screen” they use its own methods of control to manipulate our sense of time and duration. The two videos by Petrina Hicks and Federico Campanale use Phantom cameras to capture 800 frames per second while Mihai Grecu’s work builds its narrative space with compositing of real and virtual elements.

The use of high definition images combined with sequence- shots that privileges certain views of space and instants of time as well as extreme slow motion that eliminates almost any sense of transition, amplify the recorded event establishing an intimate viewing experience. As the image slows down to magnify the narrative progression our thought processes catch up with its fleeting moments and we are invited to observe the life durations meticulously under the microscopic gaze of slow motion camera. The possibility of seeing what is otherwise invisible in "real" life creates a paradoxical situation: on the one hand it annihilates the human factor because without the "mechanical intervention" this could not have been possible and on the other hand it reinforces subjectivity and the metaphorical power of the images. We find this paradox in Vertov's famous "kini-eye": "I am kino-eye, I am a mechanical eye. I, a machine, show you the world as only I can see it." (Dziga Vertov 1923).

The three video works build multi-layered images of time; they fuse the photographic (the moment, the image) into the cinematographic (the present-passing of immediate memory). The cinematic shot, "a mould of change" according to Deleuze, rather than contrasting with the photograph, "a mould of space" which immobilizes the instant, makes use of its potential to reveal immanence.

These images act on a reflexive, linguistic level of thought. They challenge the very nature of the cinematic fact to produce automatic and autonomous movement, which correlates with the automation of our thinking. They are anchored in a subject, seen from a fixed point that functions as viewpoint. They let us experience a kind of "déjà-vu", a recollection of the present, which according to Bergson makes perceptible the continual duplication of the present. They don't give us an immediate "movement-image" but a still image to which, at some later point, movement is added; an image which gives us the time for critical distance and contemplation.

ATOPIA presents a screening program on the history of Norwegian film & video art at Amsterdam art festival, Kunstvlaai 2012.

Film & Video works by: Erik Borge, Rolf Aamot,

Arild Kristo, Laurie Grundt, Kjartan Slettemark, Marianne Heske, Jeremy Welsh, Terje Munthe,

Kjell Bjørgeengen, Inghild Karlsen & Torhild Aukan.

Curated by Farhad Kalantary this program brings together a number of key historical works produced between 1960 and 90 in Norway. These works were part of ATOPIA’s larger research exhibition Retrospective: Film & Video Art Norway, 1960-90.

More about the program (PDF)