The Festival Exhibition 2010
Instead I went back to the office and back to work, and the enchantment broke. But at least for a few minutes there I saw the familiar sights of the city I've lived in for 12 years with the eyes of the artist inside of me; a crane wasn't just a crane and the buildings around me were important coulisses on the stage of my life.
"To watch and understand art is a learning process, and to understand and fully benefit from contemporary art is probably that what demands the highest level of effort from the audience". Hilde Marie Pedersen is the responsible intermediary at Bergen Kunsthall, and she gives me the tour of Knut Åsdam's Festspillutstilling (Festival Exhibition) 2010. "We have visitors of every age and from different parts of the country and the world, and my biggest challenge as a mediator, is to get people to see and embrace contemporary art as they do with other types of art. I often feel I have to convince them; kind of shake them out of their traditional way of looking at art and into understanding and appreciating also modern art. Sometimes it is easier with kids and children, as they have not yet made up their minds as to what art is".
How to see contemporary art
Bergen Kunsthall has visits from kindergartens and schools on a regular basis, and Hilde Marie has registered the development in how the children look at, experience and comment upon one exhibition from another. "It is obvious to see that they absorb the art and also their everyday surroundings in a new way when they get used to going to exhibitions. What is exciting about contemporary art, and especially this exhibition, is that one gets to be a part of the art, the installations, in a whole other way than one gets i.e. by going to a traditional museum with paintings on the wall. In this exhibition the presentation of the art, the surroundings, the use of light, everything - is part of it, and built up and put together in order to give the audience the best experience".
Knut Åsdam's Festival Exhibition
My guided tour starts in gallery "NO. 5", where expressive still frames from one fourth of Knut Åsdam's Festival Exhibition project are presented as photographs, neatly lined on the walls. His exhibition is structured around three projects that deal with specific geographical areas. "Common for the three projects is that they present urban, migrated and multicultural locations".
"NO. 5" hosts the part of the exhibition that shows Oslo, more precisely Groruddalen, that has a mixed residential pattern that includes both public housing projects and owner-occupied areas. The area has an immigrant population of about 50%, compared to 25% in the rest of Oslo. Åsdam's pictures illustrate the urbanity and the migrated culture from a different angle than one would expect. He uses the architecture, a bus, the way peoples interact and use their environment in his pictures, and we are invited to interpret life in Groruddalen through his "snap-shots".
In addition to the photo project from Groruddalen, the exhibition consists of a film project from Tripoli in Lebanon, a film project from Abyss in London and a new work based on Åsdam's own archive of found photo material.
Psychasthenia
You have to leave the first exhibition and enter through another door to visit the three other projects. Physical boundaries have been built up, forcing guests to enter at a "gateway" through the high fences, that gives associations to a sport's arena or a prison. Two films are running continuously on large screens in two different rooms. There are no doors between them, and you can hear the sounds from the other while watching the one. In both rooms concrete stands have been built, to sit on and act as part of the sport's scenery. Ivy grows on parts of the fences. I feel almost like stumbling around in Åsdam's scenery, being sucked into his art rather than watching it. Like one of the kids that Hilde Marie has shown around in the exhibition said; "we're in the middle of the film". The use of architectural installations in his works is not new for Åsdam, and Hilde Marie refers to his exhibition "Psychasthenia" from 1999. "Between the shaped and the shapeless, where you lose sense of direction and locality and are unable to sort out your impressions, that is when you experience psychasthenia. On the border between countries, in prison, in chaos". I've learned a new word today, and through Åsdam's exhibition and Hilde Marie's explanation I think I understand it.
Abyss
"This film is in the borderline between the artistic and feature. It lasts for 43 minutes and contains a lot more narrative than other art films. At the same time it is too fragmented to classify as a feature film". Abyss shows human beings in an urban area of London, shows how they act, live and parts of their surroundings and tells their story through scattered clips. "The dialectics between the people and their environment is illustrated in an aesthetically beautiful film, and the use of shapes and colors is fabulous", says Pedersen, "but while enjoying it's beauty you can not avoid getting captured by the story of the film, which is sad and gripping. The main character collapses, both psychologically and physically, and this results in a loss of ability to orient and to sort out all the impressions from the environment and the people around her. Her observation of reality in the film is somewhat related to the feeling the audience gets from watching".
Tripoli
The film from Tripoli is a lot shorter. It is filmed in the ruins of the Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer's stranded vision of an ambitious, international market place in what historically used to be a market centre in the Middle East. The traces of optimism from the days of glory, standing as a gaping wound, creates a somewhat scary and unpleasant scenery. An area that intentionally should have been crowded with lots of happy, bargaining people is empty, except from the actors of the film. The once so proud country has not yet managed to fully recover from the civil war in 1975 and the war with Israel in 2006, and the two historical events stands in stark contrast to each other as they meet in the unfinished monuments that build the scenery of this film.
untitled: archive (migration)
The walls are fully covered with printouts in the fourth and last room that forms Knut Åsdam's Festival Exhibition. Countless A4-sized prints hang on every inch of all four walls and I feel a bit dizzy before I am able to fix my eyes on one motif. There does not seem to be any kind of order in all the pictures. They are from all kinds of countries, old pictures, newer pictures, historical events, insignificant events, in color and in black and white. They stand however good together, and without being able to put finger on why they do so, there is no doubt that if you should have to name this part of the exhibition, the name would be 'migration'.
"I suppose I could stand in that room for hours, and still discover something new", I tell Hilde Marie as we stand in the room, both spinning on our own axis while looking up and down with flickering eyes. "Suppose you could", she replies, "I never get tired of this room, and I have spent quite some hours here so far. The interesting thing about this part of the exhibition is that it only exists here and now. While the rest of the exhibition is already booked for a tour in Europe, this part of it will never be recreated".
And I assure you; that alone is all the reason you need to visit Bergen Kunsthall and Knut Åsdam's Festival Exhibition within the next week. The exhibition lasts until 22. august.
Read more about the exhibition on: http://www.kunsthall.no/
Naming Ceremony for "Skandi Skolten"
The bottle of Champagne exploded as it hit the vessel's starboard side with might and main and Ms. Møgster wished happiness and success for Skandi Skolten, which is said to be the world's strongest anchor handling vessel with it's approx 350 t Bollard Pull and a Machinery of 36000 HP.
The Naming Ceremony took place at Skoltegrunnskaien, at the tip of the bay the leads into Bergen's magnificent "parade street"; Bryggen. The heavy rain that has been this summer's weather rule took a break as the Guests could enjoy a guided tour of the vessel.
Skandi Skolten, that is the 50th vessel built by STX Europe at Aukra, Norway, for DOF is 109,50 meters long and has accommodation for 90 persons. The vessel is designed for world wide operations with the following special features:
- Low resistance hull shape designed for high speed and low fuel consumption, good sea- and station-keeping performances, excellent manoeuvrability, high capasities and good stability
- Environmental friendly design
- Large working deck
- ROV hangar, prepared for launch- and recovery system for ROV
- Large, high standard and comfortable accommodation with low noise levels
The vessel has a 250 t crane that works together with two ROVs when the ship has assignments as a construction vessel and Skandi Skolten's first job is to mount tide turbines for the production of electricity in the Strait of Pentland north of Scotland.
The Naming Ceremony ended with a Banquet dinner in Kongesalen at Radisson Blu Royal Hotel at Bryggen. The well-known Norwegian artist Tone Damli Aaberge was the main attraction at the party that lasted until the small hours of the night.
Norwegian Hull Club's Claims Director Jostein Egeland and his wife Eva Hystad was among the guests: "We want to congratulate DOF on their new vessel and we would like to thank them for trusting us with the claims leader position. We wish all the best for the vessel and it's crew!"
Terrorist group takes the blame for mystery incident in the Strait of Hormuz
The Japanese vessel "M Star" suffered a large indent and had it's lifeboat and several windows fractures Wednesday 28th July. Speculations regarding what caused the damages to the VLCC have been many and various the latter week, but today, Wednesday 4th August, the terrorist group The Brigades of Abdullah Azzam posted a message on Islamic websites claiming responsibility for the assault.
"Last Wednesday, after midnight, the martyrdom-seeking hero Ayyub al-Taishan ... blew himself up in the Japanese tanker M.Star in the Strait of Hormuz between the United Arab Emirates and Oman", is the message from the websites, according to several media.
Despite the admission from the Abdullah Azzam Brigade, several analysts cast doubt on the belated claim, as this terrorist group has a track record of taking responsibility for attacks also claimed by other organizations. The admission it timed just one day after deadly clashes on the Israeli-Lebanese border and two days after rocket fire on Israeli and Jordanian Red Sea ports and could have been a move to get the global spotlight turned in their direction in order to make tensions bigger, explain analysts.
Other analysts said it would be odd for an al Qaeda-linked group to post a photo and use this particular website if it were not involved. The cause of the incident is being examined by a military specialist hired last week by shipowner Mitsui O.S.K., and as soon as he has finished his work, one will hopefully get closer to the real cause of this mystery incident.
Mystery incident in the Strait of Hormuz
Latest Omani officials from the country's Royal Police that investigates the blast, said a lack of balance in the volume of ship's natural gases had caused the blast. They have also mentioned an Earth Quake of 3,4 at Richter scale which took place in the area, and suggest that this could have caused a rough wave.
Mitsui O.S.K Lines Ltd said earlier today, Thursday, at a press conference in Tokyo, that the incident occurred N 26 degrees and 26.5 minutes E 56 degrees 14 minutes.
An official of the marine transporter said the tanker's ceiling and wall partially came off, suggesting that the ship was hit from the outside.
Given that the ship was not flooded, the company denied the possibility that the tanker was damaged by waves generated by an earthquake.
Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd also said it has hired a military attack specialist to help investigate the cause of damage.
Initial report from Fujairah PM last night (CET) describes the following situation:
• All press banned from port.
• M.Star placed prox 20 km from port at holding area.
• Life boat "blown off" holding position on ship side and lost during incident.
• 5 doors blown off in aft stb section of M Star.
• Windows on main deck stb side damaged due to reported "blast" and 1 crew member suffered light splinter damage due to broken glass.
Please see NHC illustrative presentation of facts based on media reports so far and released picture.
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