The gusty and windy has become Bodø’s characteristic to such an extent that when the city finally unveiled its magnificent cultural center in 2014, the name became Stormen. This combined concert hall and library is a kind of heart of the Bodø Biennale, which is now running for the fourth time. The biennale is an interdisciplinary gathering where visual art meets contemporary dance. Here there was a lush and exciting program that unfolded throughout the first four days of September, with over a hundred artists, exciting exhibitions and a selection of artist talks and performance art. Some of the exhibitions last until November, but much of the biennale was over the first weekend. Body in a nylon stocking-like funnel A particularly interesting project was the Swedish artist Malin Bülow’s “AER”. Aer is Greek for wind, and the work was especially dedicated to the windy Nordic capital. Malin Bülow’s “AER” was specially commissioned for the Bodø Biennale. It consisted of performance art at various locations in the city during the opening weekend. Photo: Synnøve Sundby Fallmyr / news Bülow’s art was also transformed into a solidified image in the form of installations in the urban space. Photo: SYNNØVE SUNDBY FALLMYR / news Bülow works choreographically and often collaborates with dancers. Throughout the extensive project, she revolves around a single motif: a stripped human body caught in a nylon stocking-like funnel, which is attached to an industrial or mechanical element in the urban space. She unfolds this expression in several ways and in different contexts, both as a performance, but also through installation, where the dancer’s body is immortalized through a 3D-printed figure. I like this image of man groping forward and stretching the limits of textile captivity. In the most spectacular performance, the textile funnel was attached to a gigantic crane, which apparently moved the little person up from the asphalt and made him dance. The large textile unfolded against the sky like a sail or a gray textile tornado filled with wind. NOT QUITE AS PLANNED: The most spectacular of the performances in this project took place outside Beddingen Kulturhus. Since the performance had been carried out several times, material fatigue had occurred in the textile, which caused it to smoke with a puff. Suddenly, the spell was broken, and the textile fluttered in the embarrassing late summer wind like a limp stocking, and the undressed dancer lay vulnerable and exposed on the asphalt. Although this was in no way the artist’s intention, I think it turned out to be quite a powerful image; this, that the strained substance that bound machine and man had to give way, and that it was the wind that had the last word. Distributed Notebooks Another project that attracted some attention was Kiyoshi Yamamoto’s political and poetic two-part work; “To dream” and “To Cry on Somebody Else’s Shoulder”. The artist, who is of Japanese origin and grew up in Brazil, has recently made a clear impact on the Norwegian art scene. He is known for his magnificent textile installations and costumes. In his project in Bodø, he focuses on the elderly. In Norway, this is a group that receives little respect and attention. During the pandemic, many people felt isolated and lonely. Then Yamamoto conducted a textile workshop with the town’s aging population. In addition, he distributed notebooks and encouraged everyone to share their thoughts, sorrows, visions and ideas. This part of the project has resulted in a small exhibition in Stormen, where Yamamoto’s characteristic textile installations are also exhibited. GLOW: Kioshi Yamamoto’s beautiful textiles in light cotton fabric are dyed in pale shades of orange, pink, violet and sun yellow. The clear September day outside made the colors glow. The textile speaks to both the architecture and the magnificent landscape behind it. Beautiful as a photo motif, but weak in movement The magnificent and colorful costumes, which are inspired by Brazilian carnival tradition, were also used in a performance, where the artist together with a group of elderly people moved and made the wind visible with the beautiful garments. As a visual motif, this was very good, but as performance art it unfortunately fell completely flat. TOO CHAOTIC: The colorful costumes in front of Stormen’s grand, stylized temple facade were a magnificent photo motif, but as a performance it became chaotic and fluid. Yamamoto should probably have added a clearer choreography here. The living was unable to live up to the great, dramatic and magical potential that lay in the costumes. There was too much small talk and laughter between the actors, and the photographer constantly disrupted the experience with cheerful shouts and instructions to the participants. A performance of this type would certainly have benefited from a much clearer direction. This appeared more like a pure photo shoot. The Trollfolk Bodø Biennale also embraces a few but exciting exhibitions. In addition to Yamamoto’s textiles and his aforementioned book exhibition “To dream”, in the art room you can experience Nora Joung’s fascinating confrontation with the northern Norwegian witch trial in the 17th century. “Governmental operations” is a rather theoretical exhibition, but Joung nevertheless manages to visualize these sensational narratives through beautiful three-dimensional paper works in a wonderful way. MADE BY DALL-E: Nora Joung’s “Governmental Operations” is a settlement with the witch trial in Eastern Finnmark in the 17th century. In the production, Joung used the image generator Dall-e with the command: “Like Albrecht Dürer, a swan, a goose, a crow and a cat dance and party with a goat who plays the fiddle.” As an interesting example of how image generators can be used in a fruitful way in a larger art project, where the main thing is not to display a technical skill. The paper expression is based on court documents from one of the many trials, where so-called wizards were accused of crimes that no one could prove they had committed, but for which they still had to pay with their lives. Joung also explores notions that lived at the time, for example that the devil had special access to women. Bodø Art Association is showing an exhibition of a completely different kind. Works by the two artists Skade Henriksen and Annelen Røe are shown here. In very different ways, they explore the history connected to mining in the north: Both Skade Henriksen and Annelen Røe convey in a poetic (formal) language a rather harsh and sober reality that is about the far-reaching consequences of mining. We wander into a dark, moody room with Skade Henriksen’s connection between the large, mighty mountains on Senja, and microscopic close-ups of the rock mass as a macro and micro look in one. Photo: Thor Brødreskift Annelen Røe, for her part, has stitched together a first-person narrative that is based on many different descriptions and recollections from the former mining community of Sulitjelma. The exhibition is both thought-provoking and beautiful. Henriksen and Røe’s works can be seen until 16 October. Photo: Jane Sverdrupsen Responding to a longing in time It was an experience to take in this beautiful city as a setting for so much exciting art. I would like to praise the Bodø Biennale for the strong focus they have on performance art. I think the living image responds to a longing for time. In our screen-based, thoroughly digitized reality and our exhausted exchange of words, bodily images have a unique opportunity to reach us through all the visual noise that surrounds us on all sides. And especially because the Bodø Biennale has this very special, live, performative programme, I think it’s such a shame that all this was over in one weekend. If you’re going to wait for people to notice a biennale, you almost have to give them time to hear about it first, and then travel there. It’s a shame when, as a critic, you don’t have time to report and evaluate before most of it is already over. Here I think the Bodø Biennale must go within itself and think differently if they have ambitions to reach beyond the city’s borders. news reviews What: Bodø Biennale Where: Stormen and various places in Bodø Artists: Various artists, but those mentioned in the review are Malin Bülow, Kioshi Yamamoto, Nora Joung, Skade Henriksen and Annelen Røe. Date: September 1–6 November 2022
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Bodø Biennale – Reviews and recommendations
