Disappearing Acts
Lofoten International Art Festival 2015
28 August–27 September 2015
Jern & Bygg / North Norwegian Art Center
Svolvær
Norway
Opening: 28 August 2015
Curated by Matt Packer and Arne Skaug Olsen
Lofoten International Art Festival (LIAF) is pleased to announce the curators, core
concept and venues of the 2015 edition.
Disappearing Acts
Titled Disappearing Acts, LIAF 2015 will take its thematic basis on ideas of human
agency disappearing through the processes of history, ecology, and technology. This
approach is informed by the context of the Lofoten Islands, with its precarious economicenvironmental dependency, its highly marketable "screensaver" scenery, and its cultural
legacy of self-sufficiency and retreat from the antagonism of the urbanised world.
Organised as a large-scale group exhibition, Disappearing Acts will feature 25–30
international artists, with many works commissioned especially for LIAF 2015. The
exhibition will also be accompanied by a full public programme and publication. A
complete artist list will be released during the opening days of the Venice Biennale, in
May 2015. For further information and updates, please contact [email protected].
Venue
The "Jern & Bygg" premises in Svolvær serves as the main venue for LIAF 2015. Jern &
Bygg was a family-owned 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.
Curators
Matt Packer is a curator and writer, living and working in Derry (Northern Ireland). He is
currently Director at Centre for Contemporary Art Derry-Londonderry. He has been
Associate Director of Treignac Projet (France) since 2012 and was Curator of
Exhibitions & Projects at the Lewis Glucksman Gallery at University College Cork
(Ireland) from 2008 to 2013. He has curated numerous exhibitions in institutional and
independent capacities including group exhibitions Magic Touch (CCA
Derry~Londonderry, 2014) O Chair O Flesh (Treignac Projet, 2013), FWA: Freeing
Welsh Architecture (Treignac Projet, 2012), School Days (Lewis Glucksman Gallery,
2011), When Flanders Failed (Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, 2011), and Getting
Even (Lewis Glucksman Gallery / Kunstverein Hannover, 2009). His writings have been
published in magazines and journals including Kaleidoscope, frieze, Source
Photographic Review, Concreta, Photography & Culture, andCamera Austria.
Arne Skaug Olsen is a curator and writer, living and working in Bergen (Norway). He
was curator at Visningsrommet USF in Bergen (2008–11), and he was a founding coeditor of Ctrl+Z Publishing and founding member of Flaggfabrikken – centre for
photography and visual art, both based in Bergen. Skaug Olsen currently teaches at the
National Academies of Art in Oslo and in Bergen, and has previously worked at
Nordland Vocational College of Art and Film in Lofoten, and Tromsø Art Academy
among others. He has had a series of positions in Norwegian art life, most recently a
board member of Young Artists Society (2012–14).
About LIAF
LIAF is a festival for contemporary art taking place in Lofoten, a cluster of islands
located on the North West Coast of Norway, just above the Arctic Circle, every second
year. The festival was first initiated in 1991, as a local art exhibition with a broad range
of expressions and with a regional profile. From 1999, the festival was given an
international profile changing the name to Lofoten International Art Festival, and since
2009, the festival has been organised by The North Norwegian Art Center (NNKS) and
LIAF's artistic advisory board.
Previous LIAF curators have included Tor Inge Kveum, Per Gunnar Tverbakk, Vibeke
Sjøvoll, Gry Ulrichsen, Göran Christenson, Maaretta Jaukkuri, Taru Elfving, Richard
Borgström, Helga-Marie Nordby, Thora Dolven Balke, Linn Pedersen, Anne Szefer
Karlsen, Bassam El Baroni and Eva González-Sancho.