This winter, we welcome textile artist and scenographer Hilde Hauan Johnsen back to Bergen for a one-month residency in Bergen Kunsthall’s Live Studio. Johnsen lived in the city for 16 years, 14 of them as professor of textile at the Bergen Academy of Art and Design. Her weaving and dyeing practice has consistently observed plant life and the geopolitics inscribed within it.
During her residency, Johnsen will search for the palette of Bergen in winter, looking to plant life and other forms of life in the cold season for the city’s expression and the stories it might tell. She will open this process up to the community through an open call, inviting 15 local participants – plant enthusiasts, hikers, textile artists and curious minds – to join her for weekly meetings over the course of the month. On three Sundays, the group will walk the landscape to discover what pigments it holds, collecting algae and tree bark, visiting gardens and hiking, then experimenting with dyeing fabric from the collected material in the Live Studio.
Open call
Apply to be part of the group using this form. Deadline: 9 November 2026.
→ OPEN CALL: plant dyeing workshop with Hilde Hauan Johnsen
Programme
Sunday 15 November 2026, 10:00–14:00
Sunday 22 November 2026, 10:00–14:00
Sunday 6 December 2026, 10:00–14:00
Hilde Hauan Johnsen is a Norwegian textile artist. She works mainly with installations that combine traditional textile techniques with technology, especially fibre optics. An interest in materiality and the senses is a recurring starting point, and her long experience with traditional craft techniques is strongly present in her work, particularly weaving and plant dyeing.