Nolan Oswald Dennis (1–30 SEP 2026)

In September 2026, artist Nolan Oswald Dennis will be in residency at Bergen Kunsthall’s Live studio. During their stay, the artist will conduct research on Bergen’s geological expressions for their 2027 Live commission.

The artist writes: “My residency will extend my ongoing practice of Black Earth Study, a cosmo-poetic framework for exploring the entanglement of socio-political and environmental phenomena. This integration of Black Study and Earth Science (an always-already alignment) reengineers scientific and cultural technologies as relational models for land and landlessness (a planetary dialectic). My research will explore the social and technical landscape of Bergen – the geo-dynamics and social-dynamics through which the wind, water, soil and rocky earth act upon the-world-as-we-know-it, and the-world-as-we-wish-it-to-be. This program of study will be conducted through a series of listening exercises based on scientific data collected in Bergen and elsewhere; in collaboration with an invited community of listeners.”

Nolan Oswald Dennis is an artist based in Johannesburg. Their practice explores the material and metaphysical conditions of decolonization, questioning histories of space and time through system-specific interventions. They hold a bachelor’s degree in architecture from the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) and a master’s degree in art, culture, and technology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Their work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Kunstinstituut Melly, Rotterdam; Swiss Institute, New York; and Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town. They have been featured in group exhibitions at FRONT Triennial, Cleveland; the Lagos Biennial; the Liverpool Biennial; MACBA, Barcelona; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Seoul Mediacity Biennale; the Shanghai Biennale; and the Young Congo Biennale, among others. They are a member of artist groups NTU and Index Literacy Program, a research associate with the VIAD Research Centre at the University of Johannesburg, and a member of the Édouard Glissant Art Fund Scientific Committee. They were invited by Koyo Kouoh to participate in the 61st Venice Biennale.