Artists PAO Festival 2015
Ane Lan (NO)
Ane Lan was born in Oslo, Norway in 1972. He graduated from the National College of Art and Design in Oslo in 2002 and works in the fields of performance, music and experimental film/video. He has participated in various international exhibitions at The Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC, Paco das Artes, Sao Paolo, the 51st Venice Biennial and the 10th Istanbul Biennial and had a solo show at the Krakow Museum of Contemporary Art. Lan has also participated in numerous film, video, performance and theater festivals worldwide.
www.anelan.com
Augusta Atla (DK) & Nikos Branidis (GR)
Augusta Atla is a visual artist born in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1979. Augusta Atla studied a BA in Fine Art at Goldsmiths College, London from 2003-2007 and received an Excellence Award from the institution in 2006. Atla also completed a MA in Art History and Theory at AA School, Architectural Association, London. Atla works in a variety of mediums and her artwork functions as a metaphor or conscious dwelling place for themes such as the natural state of joy, the excess of fertility, love, vitality and growth. These qualities refer not only to women and femininity, but also to nature, emotions and humanity at large. Augusta Atla believes that art can reveal our deepest and most inherent feelings of joy, satisfaction, love, awe, compassion, desire and can also convey the desire to grow spiritually in connection to one’s own source of love.
www.atla.dk
Nikos Branidis (b. 1974 in Athens, GR), holds a BA in Mathematics from University of Thessaloniki, Greece, and has made art in the form of written poetry, photography, video, performance, objects, sculptures since 1992. Branidis’ work has been shown at various exhibitions including Maison Maca, Athens, Art Athina Art Fair in Athens, Banja Rathnov Gallery in Copenhagen, CAN Gallery, Athens and BIOS, Athens, and he has published a book of poetry. Nikos Branidis has created video-works and performed solo and in collaboration with other artists. Nikos has performed at Michael Cacoyannis Foundation, Athens, GR, Remap Art Festival, Athens, GR and at Banja Rathnov Gallery, Copenhagen, DK. The short film Toothbrushes by Nikos Branidis has won various prizes and shown internationally.
www.nikbran.com
Augusta Atla is a visual artist born in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1979. Augusta Atla studied a BA in Fine Art at Goldsmiths College, London from 2003-2007 and received an Excellence Award from the institution in 2006. Atla also completed a MA in Art History and Theory at AA School, Architectural Association, London. Atla works in a variety of mediums and her artwork functions as a metaphor or conscious dwelling place for themes such as the natural state of joy, the excess of fertility, love, vitality and growth. These qualities refer not only to women and femininity, but also to nature, emotions and humanity at large. Augusta Atla believes that art can reveal our deepest and most inherent feelings of joy, satisfaction, love, awe, compassion, desire and can also convey the desire to grow spiritually in connection to one’s own source of love.
www.atla.dk
Nikos Branidis (b. 1974 in Athens, GR), holds a BA in Mathematics from University of Thessaloniki, Greece, and has made art in the form of written poetry, photography, video, performance, objects, sculptures since 1992. Branidis’ work has been shown at various exhibitions including Maison Maca, Athens, Art Athina Art Fair in Athens, Banja Rathnov Gallery in Copenhagen, CAN Gallery, Athens and BIOS, Athens, and he has published a book of poetry. Nikos Branidis has created video-works and performed solo and in collaboration with other artists. Nikos has performed at Michael Cacoyannis Foundation, Athens, GR, Remap Art Festival, Athens, GR and at Banja Rathnov Gallery, Copenhagen, DK. The short film Toothbrushes by Nikos Branidis has won various prizes and shown internationally.
www.nikbran.com
Elisabeth Færøy Lund (NO)
In a constant search for the moment of movement, Elisabeth Færøy Lund creates different settings for an initial encounter in her performances. Whether it is between her and the audience in the gallery room, random people she approaches on the street, or between invited participants, she most often encourages the audience to participate actively. She holds a bachelor degree in Fine art Photography from Gothenburg University, but early found a deeper interest in the potential of a direct meeting and started focusing on performance art. Lofoten is her new base and solitude might become more apparent in her latest work.
www.ellaferoy.com
In a constant search for the moment of movement, Elisabeth Færøy Lund creates different settings for an initial encounter in her performances. Whether it is between her and the audience in the gallery room, random people she approaches on the street, or between invited participants, she most often encourages the audience to participate actively. She holds a bachelor degree in Fine art Photography from Gothenburg University, but early found a deeper interest in the potential of a direct meeting and started focusing on performance art. Lofoten is her new base and solitude might become more apparent in her latest work.
www.ellaferoy.com
Essi Kausalainen (FI)
(b. 1979) studied Performance Art and Theory at Turku Arts Academy and the Theatre Academy of Finland. Her work has been exhibited and performed at venues such as Malmö Moderna Museet, Frankfurt Kunstverein, Museum for Contemporary Art Roskilde, Nikolaj Kunsthalle in Copenhagen and Kunstraum Bethanien in Berlin.
Perceiving the world as an organic entity, a chaotic body in which all the parts are equally important, Essi Kausalainen makes works wherein the space, different species of beings and things are approached as performers and partners. Together with plants, minerals and objects she creates ceremonial-like situations and events to explore and celebrate their complex coexistence. Inspired by plant thinking, feminist science studies, new materialisms and quantum physics, Kausalainen creates ambiguous works that – instead of images or objects – take the shape of gestures and actions.
www.essikausalainen.com
(b. 1979) studied Performance Art and Theory at Turku Arts Academy and the Theatre Academy of Finland. Her work has been exhibited and performed at venues such as Malmö Moderna Museet, Frankfurt Kunstverein, Museum for Contemporary Art Roskilde, Nikolaj Kunsthalle in Copenhagen and Kunstraum Bethanien in Berlin.
Perceiving the world as an organic entity, a chaotic body in which all the parts are equally important, Essi Kausalainen makes works wherein the space, different species of beings and things are approached as performers and partners. Together with plants, minerals and objects she creates ceremonial-like situations and events to explore and celebrate their complex coexistence. Inspired by plant thinking, feminist science studies, new materialisms and quantum physics, Kausalainen creates ambiguous works that – instead of images or objects – take the shape of gestures and actions.
www.essikausalainen.com
Hiroko Tsuchimoto (SE)
Hiroko Tsuchimoto is a visual/performance artist living in Sweden since 2008. She began her career at Musashino Art University in Tokyo and went on to study at Konstfack and Kungliga Konsthögskolan (Royal Institute of Arts) in Stockholm.
Since moving to Europe, she has worked with ethnography as a subject matter. In her art, she shifts between grand narratives and every day stories highlighting the cultural construction of personal identity. She tells stories about otherness and the will to belong, based on her experiences as an Asian immigrant. This position gives her a bird’s eye view on both Swedish and Japanese society. Through her works she makes gaps in our normality, for self-reflection and external observations. Recent works focus on subject matter such as borders, myths and cultural mapping by exploring Swedish & Japanese folklore, set in a present day context. She often includes a feminist perspective, problematizing traditional gender roles and Japanese politics. Her goal is to make art that is easy on both critical eyes and the disinterested gaze - creating an aesthetic experience with a deeper meaning underneath.
www.hirokotsuchimoto.info
Hiroko Tsuchimoto is a visual/performance artist living in Sweden since 2008. She began her career at Musashino Art University in Tokyo and went on to study at Konstfack and Kungliga Konsthögskolan (Royal Institute of Arts) in Stockholm.
Since moving to Europe, she has worked with ethnography as a subject matter. In her art, she shifts between grand narratives and every day stories highlighting the cultural construction of personal identity. She tells stories about otherness and the will to belong, based on her experiences as an Asian immigrant. This position gives her a bird’s eye view on both Swedish and Japanese society. Through her works she makes gaps in our normality, for self-reflection and external observations. Recent works focus on subject matter such as borders, myths and cultural mapping by exploring Swedish & Japanese folklore, set in a present day context. She often includes a feminist perspective, problematizing traditional gender roles and Japanese politics. Her goal is to make art that is easy on both critical eyes and the disinterested gaze - creating an aesthetic experience with a deeper meaning underneath.
www.hirokotsuchimoto.info
Magnús Logi Kristinsson (IS/FI)
Born in 1975 in Iceland, Kristinsson has been creating solo performances since 1999 when he moved to Amsterdam to study at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy, focusing on performative practice and receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree in 2003. From 2005 to 2007, he was performing with the interdisciplinary performance group Oblivia. He received his Masters of Fine Art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki where he now lives and works.
Language and the body become structural and sculptural forms in Kristinsson's performance-based practice. Through a systematic manner of speaking his diverse listings become a mix of concrete poetry and music, while his physical presence is put to the test as it borders on the inanimate.
http://cargocollective.com/maggilogi/MAGNUS-LOGI-KRISTINSSON
Marita Isobel Solberg (NO)
born1977 in Tromsø, Norway,
A nomad of the world, Solberg is a musician and visual artist focusing on Performance Art and installation. A multifaced crossover artist that experiments and engages many different media in her work such as sound/music, performance, photography, poetry, video, clay/ceramics and sculpture. Interweaving elements from Sámi, North Norwegian and Japanese Culture and subculture she embodies personas of varied but particular properties; The seer, the witch, the sage or the jester. Equally understated and burlesque, minimal and expressive, sarcastic and blissful, blunt and evasive, the works explore a world of communication, challenge and strangeness, violence and melancholy, loneliness and desire with narrative passages or content. At times autobiographical, strongly connected to the surroundings, she mixes with more symbolic and ritual elements.
She finished her Masters degree in 2007 at the National Academy of The Arts in Oslo and has since then been in residence stay in Japan, USA, Russia and UK and participated in several art and music-related projects.
www.maritaisobelsolberg.virb.com
born1977 in Tromsø, Norway,
A nomad of the world, Solberg is a musician and visual artist focusing on Performance Art and installation. A multifaced crossover artist that experiments and engages many different media in her work such as sound/music, performance, photography, poetry, video, clay/ceramics and sculpture. Interweaving elements from Sámi, North Norwegian and Japanese Culture and subculture she embodies personas of varied but particular properties; The seer, the witch, the sage or the jester. Equally understated and burlesque, minimal and expressive, sarcastic and blissful, blunt and evasive, the works explore a world of communication, challenge and strangeness, violence and melancholy, loneliness and desire with narrative passages or content. At times autobiographical, strongly connected to the surroundings, she mixes with more symbolic and ritual elements.
She finished her Masters degree in 2007 at the National Academy of The Arts in Oslo and has since then been in residence stay in Japan, USA, Russia and UK and participated in several art and music-related projects.
www.maritaisobelsolberg.virb.com
Naja Lee Jensen (DK/NO)
Naja Lee Jensen has a MFA from the Art Academy in Oslo (2012) and a BA in Acting from Norwegian Theatre Academy (2010). Her work centers around displacement; the displacement of places, the displacement between reality and the perception of reality and the displacement between a work and its’ viewer. She is a part of the European theatre network APAP’s program “Performing Europe 2011-2016” and has shown her work at Novi Ganz Novi Festival in Zagreb (2012), Black Box Theatre in Oslo (2014) and at Bergen International Festival (2013).
www.najaleejensen.com
Naja Lee Jensen has a MFA from the Art Academy in Oslo (2012) and a BA in Acting from Norwegian Theatre Academy (2010). Her work centers around displacement; the displacement of places, the displacement between reality and the perception of reality and the displacement between a work and its’ viewer. She is a part of the European theatre network APAP’s program “Performing Europe 2011-2016” and has shown her work at Novi Ganz Novi Festival in Zagreb (2012), Black Box Theatre in Oslo (2014) and at Bergen International Festival (2013).
www.najaleejensen.com
Päivi Laakso (FI/NO)
is a Norwegian artist and writer born in Tornio, north Finland. As a visual artist Laakso create natural poetic landscape, with magical realism and exuberant associations. She moves between different media, such as painting, drawing, sculpture, performance and literature. The installations are often composed in the room as independent artworks that united become complete.
Her performances can be perceived as wild, self-ironic, with a good portion of dark humor. She plays with fiction and reality, using different alter egos and characters and scenic tools such as fish, engines, sound, light and fireworks.
Laakso has exhibited widely nationally and internationally such as Galleri Brandstrup in Norway and Museum of Modern Art in Rio De Janeiro, and have received an number of grants and stipends such as Jacob Weidemann prize in 2003. She is educated at the National Academy of The Arts in Oslo.
www.paivilaakso.no
is a Norwegian artist and writer born in Tornio, north Finland. As a visual artist Laakso create natural poetic landscape, with magical realism and exuberant associations. She moves between different media, such as painting, drawing, sculpture, performance and literature. The installations are often composed in the room as independent artworks that united become complete.
Her performances can be perceived as wild, self-ironic, with a good portion of dark humor. She plays with fiction and reality, using different alter egos and characters and scenic tools such as fish, engines, sound, light and fireworks.
Laakso has exhibited widely nationally and internationally such as Galleri Brandstrup in Norway and Museum of Modern Art in Rio De Janeiro, and have received an number of grants and stipends such as Jacob Weidemann prize in 2003. She is educated at the National Academy of The Arts in Oslo.
www.paivilaakso.no
Sigmund Skard (NO)
Born 1952, Valevåg, Norway
Living and working in the rugged landscape of the westcoast of Norway, he use everyday material to highlight new and unknown forms and qualities through these known objects.
His works often interconnect various techniques and he often mix them. The works are often created and expressed through sculpture, performance and documentation such as photo and video. Humanities term is shown in the form of models of what can work and what does not work.
www.sigmundskard.com
Born 1952, Valevåg, Norway
Living and working in the rugged landscape of the westcoast of Norway, he use everyday material to highlight new and unknown forms and qualities through these known objects.
His works often interconnect various techniques and he often mix them. The works are often created and expressed through sculpture, performance and documentation such as photo and video. Humanities term is shown in the form of models of what can work and what does not work.
www.sigmundskard.com
WOL / Lovisa Johansson & Wenche Tankred (SE)
WOL is a continuous artistic process that has been going on since 2007.
A collaboration between Lovisa Johansson and Wenche Tankred.
WOL works with visuals and sound creating playful works with a humorous freedom that want to turn the world on it's head. WOL is beautiful, ugly and perfectly childish.
www.wolart.se
WOL is a continuous artistic process that has been going on since 2007.
A collaboration between Lovisa Johansson and Wenche Tankred.
WOL works with visuals and sound creating playful works with a humorous freedom that want to turn the world on it's head. WOL is beautiful, ugly and perfectly childish.
www.wolart.se
Wunderkind Collective (IS)
Bergthora Snaebjornsdottir (b. 1985, Reykjavik) and Rakel McMahon (b. 1983, Reykjavik) are a poet/artist duo based in Reykjavik and Berlin. They have been working together as Wunderkind since 2011.
Their work continuously explores society from the point of view of the individual experience, its implicit solitude and absurd nature. Examining the oscillation between privacy and voyeurism, fondness and fetish, memory and the debris of nostalgia, their work emphasizes the human condition as a paradox.
In their working process, they communicate through text and drawing with the dialogue resulting in performance. In doing so, they are seeking to disrupt the line between theater and performance by manipulating the viewer - performer relationship through imposing intentions and unexpected roles upon the audience.
Wunderkind is an expandable entity, bringing in various collaborators and actors. An ongoing project is THE DAYS OF THE CHILD PRODIGY ARE OVER, a large-scale project that incorporates a broad range of media; poetry, drawings, installations, video and performance. Further projects are underway.
http://www.wunderkindcollective.com/
Bergthora Snaebjornsdottir (b. 1985, Reykjavik) and Rakel McMahon (b. 1983, Reykjavik) are a poet/artist duo based in Reykjavik and Berlin. They have been working together as Wunderkind since 2011.
Their work continuously explores society from the point of view of the individual experience, its implicit solitude and absurd nature. Examining the oscillation between privacy and voyeurism, fondness and fetish, memory and the debris of nostalgia, their work emphasizes the human condition as a paradox.
In their working process, they communicate through text and drawing with the dialogue resulting in performance. In doing so, they are seeking to disrupt the line between theater and performance by manipulating the viewer - performer relationship through imposing intentions and unexpected roles upon the audience.
Wunderkind is an expandable entity, bringing in various collaborators and actors. An ongoing project is THE DAYS OF THE CHILD PRODIGY ARE OVER, a large-scale project that incorporates a broad range of media; poetry, drawings, installations, video and performance. Further projects are underway.
http://www.wunderkindcollective.com/