About the biennial

Oslobiennalen is an international biennial for art in public space.

The projects in Oslobiennalen take public space and spheres in the city of Oslo as starting point and occurs around the city or in public spheres such as radio, newspapers, internet, publications, film and so forth.

The biennial aims at engaging a varied public in order to underline, expand and disseminate the long tradition the city of Oslo has for collecting and investing in art, and for engaging artists in projects in public space. The idea is that through the biennial, local and international artist is invited to work in Oslo with the city itself as a material for artistic production.

Oslobiennalen is initiated and financed by the City of Oslo, Agency for Cultural Affairs.

osloBIENNALEN FIRST EDITION

osloBIENNALEN FIRST EDITION 2019-2024 opened 25. May 2019 and was conceived, developed and curated by Eva González-Sancho Bodero and Per Gunnar Eeg-Tverbakk. 

osloBIENNALEN FIRST EDITION launched a new biennial model, an evolving program of art in public space with different temporalities, rhythms and duration.

Initially, osloBIENNALEN FIRST EDITION  was set out to last for five years, but in the fall of 2020 the City of Oslo, Agency for Cultural Affairs, decided to shorten the time span of the first edition by two years and conclude by 2021.

Participants in osloBIENNALEN FIRST EDITION

Mikaela Assolent (FR), Adrián Balseca (EC), Benjamin Bardinet (FR), Julien Bismuth (FR), Marcelo Cidade (BR), Jonas Dahlberg (SE), Carole Douillard (FR), Ed D’Souza (UK), Mette Edvardsen (NO), Jan Freuchen, Jonas Høgli Major, Sigurd Tenningen (NO), Gaylen Gerber (US), Oliver Godow (DE), Hlynur Hallsson (IS), Marianne Heier (NO), Katja Høst (NO), Javier Izquierdo (EC), Graziela Kunsch (BR), Michelangelo Miccolis (MEX), Mônica Nador and Bruno Oliveira (BR), Alexander Rishaug (NO), Rose Hammer, Michael Ross (USA), Lisa Tan (USA), Øystein Wyller Odden (NO), Knut Åsdam (NO).

Background

In 2013, an announcement made by the City of Oslo Agency for Cultural Affairs sought a curatorial team to conceive the format for a first «Oslo Biennial of Public Art». The initial response to the announcement of a new biennial was OSLO PILOT,  a research-based 
pilot project carried out between 2015–2017 by the curators Eva González-Sancho Bodero and Per Gunnar Eeg-Tverbakk, to provide a definition, vision, and modus operandi for an art biennial in public space. After the completion of OSLO PILOT, a curatorial proposal was delivered by
González-Sancho Bodero and Eeg-Tverbakk, 
to the City of Oslo.  The proposal was accepted, and with it a first, inaugural edition of a biennial format lasting from 2019-2024, set to open on the 25th of May 2019.

osloBIENNALEN FIRST EDITION 2019-2024

We invite—we do not commission. We work with art that addresses specific situations and contexts—we do not “mediate” between artworks and audiences. Our audience comprises random passers-by—not a predetermined audience. We explore, question, disrupt, and embrace public space and what happens in it—we do not treat public space as an alternative exhibition space.

osloBIENNALEN FIRST EDITION 2019-2024 opened on May 25 2019, launching a new biennial model. Its five-year evolving program of art in public space is supported by praxis and infrastructures aimed at fostering and facilitating art practices that engage with the contingency, latency, flux, and vulnerability of public space and the public sphere. In this way, osloBIENNALEN has brought two traditionally distinct art fields together: the biennial and art in public space.

The best experiences of other biennials have provided examples of temporary, experimental, conceptual and processual artistic practices, while the best of art in public space depends on the use of unexpected places and sites, encounters with diverse audiences and random passers-by, and the variable time frames associated with art in public space.

osloBIENNALEN has recently launched a second set of projects in October 2019, which marks another manifestation of its policy of stretching the conventional biennial timeframe to allow projects to unfold overtime. New works will appear, while others presented at the opening in May continue, evolve, relocate and develop. Some works will pause momentarily pending the next phase or episode. Works that have been completed are documented and some are being re-released in book form. Others might remain indefinitely. In this way, works of art can pass through different stages of development, evolution and display within a single framework. This marks osloBIENNALEN FIRST EDITION 2019- 2024 as something other than an art exhibition in public space. It is very different in its approaches to production, development, and reception. It is not possible to visit the whole biennial in the space of a few days; it can only be approached as a series of encounters or fragments over a period of several years.

The Biennial engages with the complete life cycle of these works of art in public space. Working alongside the artists, the biennial is involved in the development of ideas, in production, public outreach and the afterlife of the works. In the context of art initiatives intended to operate outside the protected spaces of conventional exhibitions, the life cycle of a work of art in public space/public sphere depends on its particular characteristics; curating must be able to allow time for sensitive handling and responses to the specific needs of each individual work, time for each project to run its course, and time for display, which may be constant, intermittent or spasmodic.

Curators Eva González-Sancho Bodero
and Per Gunnar Eeg-Tverbakk

The text above is an excerpt from "Curators Introduction" in the publication October 2019 - New, Ongoing, Complete (2019).

Opening Weekend 25th May 2019 Photo: Niklas Hart / Hartwork.

Institutional Partners

Institutional partnerships in Norway and further afield involve Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, Milano (IT); Acción Cultural Española (AC/E) (ES); Deichman Oslo Public Library (NO); Ekebergparken, Oslo (NO); Kunstnernes Hus (NO); Kungliga Konsthögskolan, Stockholm (SE); Le Magasin des horizons, Grenoble (FR); Matter of Art Biennial, Prague (CZ); NMBU-Norwegian University of Life Sciences: Faculty of Landscape and Society (NO); Nordic Black Theatre (NO); OsloMet, Faculty of Technology, Art and Design (NO), Department of Art, Design and Drama (NO); Oslo domkirke/Oslo biskop (NO); Oslo Open (NO); Oslo kulturskole, Oslo (NO); Pikene på Broen, Kirkenes (NO); Prosjektskolen kunstskole (NO); Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm (SE); Sporveien Oslo AS (NO), Stiftelsen Edvard Munchs Atelier (NO); Publics Helsinki (FI); U.F.O.— Exhibition Guide for Oslo (NO); Ultima (NO); Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton (UK); Interkulturelt museum Oslo (NO); 3.14 Bergen (NO); Trondheim Kunsthall (NO); Karmaklubb* (NO); Sámiid Searvi/Oslo sameforening (OSS) (NO)

More partners will be announced as the programme evolves.

All activities are open to the public and free of charge.

osloBIENNALENFIRST EDITION