Disappearing Acts

More than twenty artists will respond to the 2015 edition of the Lofoten International Art Festival, ranging from video and sound installations, to sculpture, text, performance, and photography.

Mercedes Mühleisen, <i>The Philosophers Stool</i>, 2013
Organised as a large-scale group exhibition, “Disappearing Acts” features a diverse selection of international contemporary artists, with many works commissioned especially for Lofoten International Art Festival (LIAF) 2015.
Each artist’s work will respond to the 2015 title, “Disappearing Acts”, curated by Matt Packer and Arne Skaug Olsen, ranging from documentary film, video and sound installations, to sculpture, text, performance, textiles and photography.
Jason Dodge, <i> In Nova Scotia, Jan de Graaf chose wool yarn the color of night, and wove the distance from the earth to above the weather</i>, 2011
Top: Mercedes Mühleisen, The Philosophers Stool, 2013. Above: Jason Dodge, In Nova Scotia, Jan de Graaf chose wool yarn the color of night, and wove the distance from the earth to above the weather, 2011
“Disappearing Acts” is themed around the idea of human agency disappearing through the processes of history, ecology, and technology. This approach is informed by the context of the unique festival location of Norway’s Lofoten Islands within the Arctic Circle, with its precarious economic-environmental dependency, its highly marketable “screensaver” scenery, and its cultural legacy of self-sufficiency and retreat from the antagonism of the urbanised world.
The “Jern & Bygg” premises in the island town of Svolvær serves as the main venue for LIAF 2015 and will act as a site-specific hub. Jern & Bygg was a familyowned hardware store and furniture outlet that operated continuously from 1948 to 2010. The business developed through the decades and new sections were repeatedly added to the original building. When it closed in 2010, it had expanded to a scale of 3,500 square meters across several floors.
The history of the premises runs parallel to the post-war history of Norway and Lofoten, from the expansive rebuilding after WWII, the rise of Social Democracy, the re-creation of Norway as a petro-state in the ’70s, the discontinuation of industrial production, monopolization of the fishing industry and subsequently the gentrification and touristification of the new millennium. The building is now the last example of pragmatic waterfront architecture in Svolvær. After LIAF 2015, the building will be demolished.

28 August – 27 September 2015
Lofoten International Art Festival 2015
Disappearing Acts
curated by Matt Packer and Arne Skaug Olsen
Jern & Bygg
North Norwegian Art Center, Svolvær, Lofoten Islands, Norway

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