Announcements
Storetveit Church, Bergen
Saturday, October 16
11:00AM -15:00PM

Storetveit parish and Performance Art Bergen continue their successful collaboration, established in 2020.
Last year, Storetveit Church celebrated its 90th Anniversary. This year PAB celebrates its 10thAnniversary. This year, we have chosen the Annunciation as our text, where Gabriel appears to Mary and tells her that she will be with child.

Announcements is a daylong event. All ages are welcome; there will be a play area for young children. There will be a café selling soup, coffee, soft drinks and cake in the parish house.

Tickets are 100kr, - free for children
11.00-12.00 welcome and introduction in the parish house
12.00-15.00 performances in Storetveit Church
11.00-15.00 café in the parish house

Invited artists:
Bjørn Venø (artist)
Karen Kipphoff (artist, scenographer)
Roskva Yasmin Andersen (dancer)
Ruth Bakke (organist, composer, choir director)
Sigmund Skard (artist)

Introductions by:
Professor Ståle Johannes Kristiansen
Artist Eleanor Clare
Drama Lecturer Grete Meyer
Parish Priest Jan Helge Gram Eggestøl

About:
We have invited our artists to freely take inspiration from The Song of Mary (Luke 1:46-56), creating performance art that will allow for a certain degree of interaction via both other artists and the audience.
The theme for the performance arrangement is connected to the church as a space for religious ritual and piety, which may also lead to transcendental or spiritual experience. Spiritual experiences can also be said to occur in other contexts, such as in nature or art.

The title, ‘ANNOUNCEMENTS,’ points towards something that will come. This perspective also takes into account that which has been. Both religious and performance art practices are connected to time and space through our bodies, but perhaps also with the intention to transgress these bounds and draw out the predetermined conditions of physical matter to create spiritual experiences.

ARTISTS

Performance: Bjørn Venø

Bjørn Venø
(b. 1979) is an Arthemist working with photography, video, performance art, writing, drawing and music. The Arthemist is one who gives or uncovers the abstract value of an object, a sound, a moment or a smell, where others do not see any value. Thoughts about energy, identity, gender, metaphysics and failure are explored by the Arthemist through free associations, intuition and the qualities of The Fool. Venø has an MA from The Royal College of Art, London (2012).He has participated in national and international art festivals and also runs his own project Venø Gård KUNST on the family farm in Stadt.

Performance: Karen Kipphoff

Karen Kipphoff
(b. 1958) has taught students in visual art, performance and scenography since the 90’s. She lives and works in Bergen and is a professor at The Norwegian Theatre Academy, Høgskolen i Østfold. Kipphoff was one of the original founders of Performance Art Bergen and has exhibited extensively both nationally and internationally, most recently with the international research project Blind Spot – Staring Down the Void. This resulted, amongst other things, in the exhibition Blind Spot at the Technical Museum in Oslo (2019-20), an experience for mind and body. Moving through the exhibition one could, by moving body and eyes, look for new perspectives and blind spots, both as actual experience and as a metaphor for society and humanity. One of the elements from this exhibition will be shown at Storetveit Church during, and for a period after, the performance event.

Performance: Roskva Yasmin Andersen

Roskva Yasmin Andersen
(b. 1990) is a dancer living in Bergen, who studied in Oslo and Amsterdam. She works with contemporary dance, where she devises her own work. Anderson also collaborates with others: site specifically, for stage and film. She wants to meet and affect the audience with genuine human experience. We all have a body and feelings and the ability to express these things with both words and movement. Through the body, we can offer experiences to performers and audience: encourage questions and share glances, interpretations, experiences and opinions within the same space. With this in mind, Andersen attempts to create conceptual physical dance pieces that communicate to a wide audience, regardless their background, ideologies or interests. It is not necessarily to understand a defined intention or opinion, but rather to experience and give value to one’s own interpretation.

Ruth Bakke
(b.1947) The composer Ruth Bakke studied the organ at Bergen Musikkonservatorium (now Griegakadamiet, UiB). She took Music Intermediate at The University of Oslo in 1968, and thereafter a BA in Music at Texas Lutheran College, USA and an MA in Music at Washington State University. In 1972 she became organist and co-conductor at Storetveit Church, where she worked for 45 years. Composing has played a central role in Bakke’s long and varied musical career. She has written church and chamber music in addition to orchestral works. Bakke is known for the sonorous colour play of her compositions, and has also used electronic music to enhance the sound. She is a skilled improviser, which characterizes several of her works.

Performance: Sigmund Skard

Sigmund Skard
(b.1952), Sveio, originally trained as a teacher, studying later at Statens kunstakademi, Oslo. In his artworks, he attempts to bring forth new forms and qualities from familiar everyday materials. He works across disciplines, happily mixing between them. He often works with sculpture, performance, photography and video. Humanity in all its conditions is presented as models of what works and what does not work. Skard’s work often has a subtle, humorous tone. Just as equally, there is a solemnity present when the artist lays forth our vulnerability, whether that be naive wonder or hubris. Skard has invited colleague Kristen Rønnevik (b. 1977) to collaborate and develop the performance «Build with light». Rønnevik lives in Haugesund. He is educated from Hull (UK), Brauschweig and Malmö with a focus on time based art. Common elements in his art are participation, interaction and dialogue. His goal is to create social arenas to enable situations where a physical and attentive contact with the surroundings can occur.

For arrangørene: Anette Friedrich Johannessen, Rita Marhaug, Jan Helge Gram Eggestøl