Water School Conversations
Climate Narratives and Explorations in Ocean Space
17:30
Bergen Kunsthall invites you to the second event in a series of informal conversations in the exhibition “Water School” by Oscar Tuazon. The events take place in the pavilions that currently occupy our galleries and explore topics addressed in the exhibition – the dynamics and power plays that regulate access to land, water, and infrastructures – together with initiatives and researchers based in Bergen who bring their topics into an open conversation. Everybody is welcome to join!
This conversation brings together three researchers from architecture, art and social anthropology.
Architect Nancy Couling developed the course “Explorations in Ocean Space” at the Bergen School of Architecture (BAS) and will join the event together with the authors of three student projects: Luna Scéau, Bastian Haukefær, Jonas Høiness and Evelyn Furnes. Skade Henriksen and Ragnhild Freng Dale 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.
Nancy Couling is an architect, Associate Professor at Bergen School of Architecture and coordinator of the Master of Advanced Studies in Urban and Territorial Design at ETH Zurich. She developed the course “Explorations in Ocean Space” at BAS, based on previous research on the Urbanisation of the Sea (Couling & Hein 2020). Student work from this course has been exhibited at Bergen Kunsthall (2021), won a first prize in the universities section, Lisbon Architecture Triennale (2022), and will be included in Joar Nango’s Girjegumpi, Samisk arkitekturbibliotek in the Nordic pavilion, Venice Architecture Biennale (2023).
Skade Henriksen (b. 1988, Finnmark/Norway) works with drawing, photography, sculpture and installation. Skade combines the poetic with a semi-scientific approach to artistic research. With her background as a research technician, she often uses scientific instruments or recordings to inform her work. Landscape is a recurring theme in her artistic practice. Henriksen holds a master’s degree from the Academy of Fine Arts in Bergen. She has recently exhibited at Tag Team Studio (2022), and Bodø Biennale (2022) and is currently showing work at Preus national photography museum (2023). In the interdisciplinary NFR project “Climate Narratives” at UIB, she is involved as an artistic advisor and project coordinator.
Ragnhild Freng Dale is a social anthropologist and senior researcher at the Western Norway Research Institute (Vestlandsforsking). Her research interests include climate transitions, energy imaginaries and how energy infrastructure impacts local and indigenous communities in the Arctic, primarily in Sápmi and Northern Norway. Several of her projects have been in collaboration with the performing arts field. Ragnhild holds a PhD from the Scott Polar Research Institute at the University of Cambridge and is a member of the Young Academy of Norway.
Image
View over Hammerfest and Melkøya island. Photo by: Ragnhild Freng Dale.
