New Interdisciplinary Competence Programme

Norwegian Arts Abroad (NAA) is helping to promote Norwegian arts internationally with a new interdisciplinary Competence Programme. On Thursday 25 November, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Anniken Huitfeldt, launched the Programme and its seven teams of participants at a reception in the State Representation House.

Funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, this pilot project aims to get Norwegian art out into the world. Seven artist-teams, consisting of one Norwegian artist and an agent, will each receive NOK 200,000 in support from NAA to support the internationalisation of their projects in the fields of film, literature, crafts, visual arts, design, music and the performing arts.

This year's participants are:

• Amund Sjølie Sveen/Inger-Marie Lupton with Nordting Pan-Arctic (PAHN)
• Jennie Bringaker/Jenny Kinge with Femtensesse (OCA)
• Maria Brinch/Elephant Kunsthall with Atlas on Iron (Norwegian Crafts)
• Victoria Kielland/Winje Agency with My Men, original title Mine menn, published by No Comprendo Press (NORLA)
• Ellen Ugelstad/Tonje Alice Madsen with The Recovery Channel (NFI)
• Bendik Giske/Sofie B. Ringstad with 'Cracks Tour' (Music Norway)
• Jenkins & Uhnger/Nuen with 'Minus' (DOGA)

The Programme's participants will take part in a series of competence-enhancing professional gatherings led by Norwegian and international experts. The participants will meet for four gatherings throughout autumn 2021 and spring 2022, and follow a course that will explore topics such as presentation techniques, market knowledge, digitisation, new markets and international launches. The Programme's application deadline was in September, by which time 28 applications had been received from the various fields of art. Of these applications, seven projects, one from each discipline, were selected by an international jury comprising members from each art field.

The international jury consisted of:
Walter Heun, Artistic & Executive Director, Joint Adventures, Germany
Nanna Hjortenberg, Director, CHART Art Fair, Denmark
Alex Gilbert, Associate Director, Friedman Benda, USA
Nicole James, Founder of the James Literary Agent, USA
Klara Nilsson Grunning, Film Commissioner NFI, Sweden
Maurice Jones, Curator, MUTEK, Canada
Hanna Nova Beatrice, Editor-in-Chief of the New Era, Sweden

High resolution images can be downloaded here

Contact:
Hege Henriksen, Director of Norwegian Crafts, hh@norwegiancrafts.no, tel. 415 55 915.

The Norwegian Arts Abroad network consists of the Performing Arts Hub Norway (PAHN), Office for Contemporary Arts (OCA), Norwegian Film Institute (NFI), Norwegian Crafts, Music Norway, Design and Architecture Norway (DOGA) and NORLA.

PARTICIPANTS

PERFORMING ARTS: Nordting, by Amund Sjølie Sveen and Inger-Marie Lupton, is a mobile people's assembly for the Cap of the North - a party for the periphery and a separatist movement for the Arctic. Nordting is an expanded performing arts project which aims to change the prevailing narrative about the northern areas, as well as shifting the existing balance of power.
Photo: Michael Miller

MUSIC: Saxophonist Bendik Giske is participating along with manager Sofie B. Ringstad and the project Cracks Tour.
Photo: Luis Alberto Rodriguez

FURNITURE DESIGN: Furniture and product designer Sverre Uhnger, of the designer-duo Jenkins & Uhnger, is collaborating with the producer Nuen on the 'Minus' chair – a piece of furniture produced at the very lowest cost to the environment. How? New technology, local production and local materials that will set a new standard for furniture production – in Norway and abroad. Photo: Sverre Uhnger

LITERATURE: Victoria Kielland's critically acclaimed novel My Men, (original title Mine menn, published by No Comprendo Press), is a poetic and captivating literary fantasy about Brynhild who traveled from Selbu to the United States in the late 1800s and ended up as Belle Gunness, America's first female serial killer. The book has already been sold to several countries, and participation in the Competence Programme will strengthen and continue this work.
Photo: Julia Marie Naglestad

ARTS AND CRAFTS: The artist Maria Brinch and the artist-run gallery Elephant Kunsthall in Lillehammer will be collaborating on the exhibition project Atlas on Iron. The exhibition is curated by the Hamburg-based curator and art historian Martha Kazungu (UG) and scheduled to be shown in Hamburg, Germany in 2022/2023. In Atlas on Iron, Brinch unites the social aspect of craftsmanship, where the exchange of traditional knowledge is seen as a platform for personal narratives and political experiences across cultures, resources and understandings.

VISUAL ARTS: Jennie Bringaker is the first artist to be presented internationally by Jenny Kinge via the art gallery Femtensesse.
Photo: Tove Sivertsen

FILM: The Recovery Channel is a genre-exploring film by director Ellen Ugelstad which imitates the news-report aesthetic by using a newscaster, vignettes and features. This is an alternative news broadcast which goes in-depth and presents news that is exclusively about mental health, while also addressing the role of the media, its power and how its scant format helps to define how we receive knowledge about mental illness, diagnoses and coercion. The film is produced by Twentyone Pictures AS, Tonje Alice Madsen and Ellen Ugelstad.