Visitors 2018

Helene Førde is an interdisciplinary artist working with installation, sculpture, sound, moving or interactive elements, and performance. A recurrent feature of her work is that she uses a site sensitive approach.

Førde is interested in exploring perception, awareness, memories, context, and the particular history and character of a space. Her recent works also reflect on cultural history, traditions and patterns of living, in the face of new times, change and prevailing politics.

Helene Førde holds an MA in Fine Art from the Bergen Academy of Art and Design, 2014, and completed the Nordic Sound Art master program the same year. She has exhibited at, among others, Galleri F15, Moss, Norway; Møre & Romsdal Art Center, Molde, Norway; Skånes Konstförening, Malmö, Sweden; and has shown work as part of Bonn Hoeren and Beethovenfest, Bonn, Germany, and Liminaria: Coesistenze, Montefalcone, Italy. She is the winner of the sound art competition Sonotopia 2015. Førde has also conceived and curated a number of exhibitions in Italy.

Benedikte Holen is a curator. She holds an MA in Art History from the University of Bergen (2011) and a degree in Creative Curating from the Bergen Academy of Art and Design (2014). Since 2013 she has been a curator at the art museum Jugendstilsenteret and KUBE in Aalesund. Previous curatorial projects include a group show exploring the topic of religion in contemporary art (2018); a site specific performance series with new performances by among others Marianne Heier, Helle Siljeholm and Eirik Slyngstad (2017); the exhibition 'The City' – concerned with cities, urban development and urbanisation (2016), as well as an exhibition project on archives with new works by Elsebeth Jørgensen and Helene Sommer (2014).

Holen has worked with several artists in developing solo and group exhibitions. She has also curated public programmes and discursive platforms, lectures and screenings, community based and artistic interventions in public space, as well as editing and contributing to publications. Her curatorial practice is rooted in a curiosity about the connection between the personal, the political and academic. Her interests lie especially in context-based practices and different kinds of knowledge production. She retains an interest in collaborative practices, which often results in initiating projects where the engagement with artists on the production of new works is essential.