Bergen Kunsthall invites to a series of informal conversations in our current exhibition by Oscar Tuazon. The talks take place in the pavilions that currently occupy our exhibition spaces. The series explores topics addressed in the exhibition – the dynamics and power plays that regulate access to land, water, and infrastructures – with initiatives based in Bergen.
Eamon O´Kane and Mathew Stiller Reeve are both part of the interdisciplinary research project Climate Narratives at the University of Bergen, focusing on identifying risks, vulnerability, innovation and adaptation possibilities for indigenous communities living along the coast of Greenland and on low-lying islands of the Pacific. Benedicte Dahm is finishing her master at the art academy in Bergen this spring and is working on a project focusing on the drinking water system in Bergen.
Eamon O´Kane (1974) is an artist and professor of visual art at KMD, UiB he is Co- Principal Investigator on the NFR, Climate Narratives project. https://climatenarratives.w.uib.no/ He explores the ideological tropes and visual forms of modernist architecture in his paintings and immersive sculptural installations. In his artwork The Maria Montessori Glass Classroom shown at NBF in Oslo in 2020 he used physical blocks on maps to explain weather, climate, simple meteorology and topography, as well as how meteorologists build and develop models to see into the future.
Mathew Stiller Reeve (1979) aims to improve the connection between research and society. Through projects which range from writing courses for researchers to large-scale dialogue events on pressing issues to interactive and hands-on activities with schools. He has worked worked closely with local rural communities in Bangladesh on studying the rainfall during the monsoon season. Stiller-Reeve is also a key researcher working on the Climate Narratives project in Greenland and the Pacific. Mathew and Eamon have collaborated on numerous projects incorporating art and climate science.
Benedicte Dahm (1997) is finishing her master at the art academy in Bergen this spring, and is working on a project focusing on the drinking water system in Bergen. In her project she is creating an audio walk that follows the main water pipes from Svartediket to different stops around Bergen, a sculptural installation, and animations sceneries. She seeks to make visible the invisible infrastructure we have around us, to make new ways to walk and use the city, and is interested in what happens when one combines stories, biography together with facts about the water and the local history of Bergen.