Bergen Kunsthall announces new Live Program Curator

Bergen Kunsthall is pleased to announce Jade Meili Barget as the new Live Program Curator. She will take up the position effective from 18 Aug 2025. As an interdisciplinary curator and writer, Jade Meili Barget has positioned her curatorial practice at the forefront of hybrid creative exploration through bold and innovative programming.

Director Kjersti Solbakken says:
– We were looking for a curator who would play a pivotal role in shaping Bergen Kunsthall’s programming and lead efforts to strengthen the institution as a leading platform for transdisciplinary and hybrid art practices. Barget’s commitment to interdisciplinary exchange and collective creation will be key in advancing our vision for innovative, boundary-pushing artistic experiences. We are confident that Barget will bring a dynamic and collaborative spirit to our live art and music programs, making a meaningful contribution to the team and helping shape the future of time-based art both within our institution and across the international cultural landscape of Bergen.

Jade Meili Barget says:
- I am honoured to join the Bergen Kunsthall team and to contribute to the institution’s vital engagement with liveness in contemporary art, both within the region and across international contexts. At a time when the terms and conditions of performance and liveness are being actively redefined –across social, technological, and artistic spheres– this is a rare opportunity to reflect and experiment. I look forward to the curatorial conversations and artistic collaborations this role will make possible.

Barget brings a thoughtful and strategic approach to program development. She has a strong ability to create holistic initiatives across live art and music, with a clear goal of including new voices and perspectives in the program.

She recently contributed to the 15th Gwangju Biennale (2024) as co-curator and co-editor of PANSORI, a sonic exploration of climate and planetary conditions and is currently performance curator in residence at Musée d’Art et d’Histoire in Geneva. From 2021 to 2024, she was part of the curatorial team at transmediale, a Berlin-based festival dedicated to the cultural and social transformations brought about by new technologies.

As an independent curator, Barget has been developing long-term projects such as The well tempered, unfolding as a series of micro-fictions on climate modification, with each chapter taking a new form and Fatal & Fallen, a film and lecture program drawing from the aesthetics of East Asian grindhouse cinema and B-movies. Her curatorial work has been presented by acclaimed institutions and platforms such as Frac Île-de-France (Romainville), SINEMA TRANSTOPIA (Berlin), Maxim Gorki Theatre (Berlin), and Nottingham Contemporary (Nottingham), to name a few.

Her writing has appeared in Momus, frieze, The White Review, Art Monthly, THE SEEN, and diaCRITICS, Los Angeles Review of Books.

Jade Meili Barget will be responsible for shaping the direction of the institution’s live initiatives and ensuring the strategic implementation in close collaboration with the broader team at Bergen Kunsthall.