Participants Panel discussion
MODERATOR:
Tone Gellein (b. 1963 in Trondheim, Norway) lives and works in Søndre land, by Randsfjorden, and was based in Oslo in the years 1982 – 2013. She has completed studies and artist residencies in Spain, Denmark, Italy, England and Scotland, and has further travelled in Japan, New York City, and Finland.
She has an MFA in Art writing from Goldsmiths college in London, and have completed studies in theatre theory, criminology and social anthropology at the University of Oslo and the University of Bergen. She also has a background in dance and experimental performing arts.
Gellein has been a collaborator and written for various books, such as «Høvik Ballett 50 år» (2019) and «Forbindelser – tre forlatte husmannsplasser» (2017-18) and «Over alle hauger: Stedskunst og steder i kunsten» (2017) about site-specific art in Oppland county.
Gellein works with performance, text, sound, video and photo, and her work investigates text as singular bases for image (video/photo), as voice, as sound and as printed text. She has shown her work in Finland, Norway, NYC and London, and her work has been supported by Norwegian Arts Council, Fund for Performing Artists Norway, Billedkunstnernes Vederlagsfond, Fritt Ord, and more.
She recently worked as director of culture in Søndre land municipality (2013-2020) and currently works as an adviser in the Department for Society and Development and as director in the Land Art Society.
Tone Gellein is one of the founders of Performance Art Oslo (PAO).
www.tonegellein.com
She has an MFA in Art writing from Goldsmiths college in London, and have completed studies in theatre theory, criminology and social anthropology at the University of Oslo and the University of Bergen. She also has a background in dance and experimental performing arts.
Gellein has been a collaborator and written for various books, such as «Høvik Ballett 50 år» (2019) and «Forbindelser – tre forlatte husmannsplasser» (2017-18) and «Over alle hauger: Stedskunst og steder i kunsten» (2017) about site-specific art in Oppland county.
Gellein works with performance, text, sound, video and photo, and her work investigates text as singular bases for image (video/photo), as voice, as sound and as printed text. She has shown her work in Finland, Norway, NYC and London, and her work has been supported by Norwegian Arts Council, Fund for Performing Artists Norway, Billedkunstnernes Vederlagsfond, Fritt Ord, and more.
She recently worked as director of culture in Søndre land municipality (2013-2020) and currently works as an adviser in the Department for Society and Development and as director in the Land Art Society.
Tone Gellein is one of the founders of Performance Art Oslo (PAO).
www.tonegellein.com
PANELISTS:
Rodrigo Ghattas (b. 1989, Lima, Peru) is a Peruvian-Palestinian artist and ‘slow-down’ activist based in Gran, Norway. Ghattas is also a vernacular socialist with an artistic exploration at the intersection between post-capitalist behavior, solidarity networks, performativity theories, and decentralized art futures. In 2018, he received an MFA Art and Public Space from Kunsthøgskolen I Oslo. Early in 2020, he co-initiated Verdensrommet, a mutual support network for immigrant artists in Norway. Ghattas is also co-founder of the artist-led mediation platform The Union and founder of the indigenous-contemporary art center and social housing Machaqmara Civic Art House. Alongside his art practice, he has held positions at OSLO PILOT, Ekebergparken, Oslo Biennial, and UKS (Young Artists’ Society) where he currently serves as Deputy Board Member.
www.rodrigoghattas.art
Ingrid Blekastad is the Director and artistic leader of Kunstbanken Hedmark Kunstsenter since 2000. Kunstbanken is an Art Centre situated in Hamar. Blekastad is initiator of Kunstbanken’ s commitment to performance art, and since 2003 curator of 12 international performance festivals and numerous exhibitions of contemporary art.
She holds an MA in art history from the University of Bergen and has 11 years of practice as a curator at Lillehammer Art Museum. She has been a lecturer in recent art history at Lillehammer University College and published many articles about contemporary art in various art magazines, exhibition catalogues and books.
https://kunstbanken.no
Zofia Cielatkowska is a philosopher and an independent researcher, curator, and art critic. She holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy and works across the fields of visual culture, feminist art history, contemporary French thought, Norwegian contemporary art, and environmental humanities. She publishes in various art magazines (Kunstkritikk, Hyperallergic, Tique Art, etc.). Cielatkowska is a member of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA) and The Norwegian Critics’ Association (Norsk kritikerlag). She lives in Oslo, Norway.
https://zofiacielatkowska.com/
Kachun Lay (b. 1989, Norway) Lay’s work is based around the processes of sculpture, performance, drawing, and digital animation. Rooted in studies of ecopsychology, philosophical posthumanism, and geology, he practices with a transdisciplinary approach where his sculptures are treated as co-performing subjects. Other times, his body functions as a drawing tool. Lay investigates our relationships as human individuals to nature’s individuals and explore the communities that these relationships create; he ponders over the spaces these meetings will conjure. Through material exploration along with physical and virtual interaction, Lay tries to make work that seems to be in a hybrid-state between the natural and artificial realm. At the same time, he aims to explore the notion of “artificial” and argues that human beings are not disconnected from nature - neither mentally nor physically.
Lay holds a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from the National Academy of the Arts in Oslo and a master’s degree in Contemporary Art from Victorian College of Arts (VCA) in Melbourne. He has exhibited and performed extensively across Norway (Oslo, Bergen, Lillestrøm, Kristiansand, Arendal and Lillesand) and Melbourne, Australia. He was selected along with 4 other artists to join the VCA ACCESS mentoring program under artist Benjamin Armstrong as his mentor.
https://www.kachun-lay.com/
Lay holds a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from the National Academy of the Arts in Oslo and a master’s degree in Contemporary Art from Victorian College of Arts (VCA) in Melbourne. He has exhibited and performed extensively across Norway (Oslo, Bergen, Lillestrøm, Kristiansand, Arendal and Lillesand) and Melbourne, Australia. He was selected along with 4 other artists to join the VCA ACCESS mentoring program under artist Benjamin Armstrong as his mentor.
https://www.kachun-lay.com/