August 30–September 29, 2019
Press preview: August 30 at 12pm
Official opening reception: August 30 at 6pm
The Opening Weekend is the first of five High Tides weekend programmes.
Biennial Venues: The Former Lofotposten Building, NNKS North Norwegian Art Center, The Old Second-Hand Shop and Svolvær Film Theatre.
Artists and contributors in the 2019 edition of LIAF:
Sarah Blissett, Anna Boberg, Michaela Casková, Diana Deutsch, Devil’s Apron (Kåre Grundvåg and Trond Ansten), João Pedro Vale & Nuno Alexandre Ferreira, Camilla Figenschou, Greg Fox, Fridaymilk, Futurefarmers (Amy Franceschini and Lode Vranken, Green Music, Biret Ristin Sara and Ravna Anti Guttorm, PLO Man & Hashman Deejay, Emmanuel Holterbach, The Informals (Polina Medvedeva & Andreas Kühne), Pauline Oliveros & Ione, Toril Johannessen, Signe Johannessen, Anne Duk Hee Jordan, Jackie Karuti, Damla Kilickiran, Signe Lidén, Julia Lohmann, Trygve Luktvasslimo, Tricia Middleton, Arjen Mulder, Astrida Neimanis, Elatu Nessa, Sabine Popp, Éliane Radigue, Marietta Radomska, Tomoko Sauvage, Kateřina Šedá, Soundcamp, Laurie Spiegel, Bob L Sturm, David Grubbs & Susan Howe, Talluz (Viktor Pedersen), Martha Todd, Morten Torgersrud, Paola Torres Núñez del Prado, Vagant, Heike Vester, Cecilia Vicuña, Cecilia Åsberg, Andrrey.
LIAF 2019 is curated by Hilde Methi, Neal Cahoon, Karolin Tampere, and Torill Østby Haaland.
From the curators' introduction:
This edition of LIAF has taken its inspiration from the multitude of inhabitants, materials, struggles, and processes that reside and take place within the wide intertidal zone surrounding the Lofoten archipelago. Rather than reach towards an overarching title for the 2019 edition, the defining features of the festival can be found in the plurality of its explorations, in the range of the different approaches, and through the series of polyvocal conversations that these processes have opened up throughout the year.
Since July 2018, the biennale has been initiating a set of collaborations with several artists who have embarked on engagements within these surroundings along the shorelines of both the Western and Eastern regions of the islands—in Digermulen, Ramberg, Skrova, and Valberg. There have also been several ongoing dialogues, conversations, field trips, and events that have been staged. This September in Svolvær, it is again amongst these pluralities where we hope to find ourselves, entangled among artworks, events, experiences, and ideas, each imagined as part of a dynamic system that encourages connection and context exchange.
About Lofoten International Art Festival
LIAF is a biennial festival for contemporary art taking place in Lofoten, a cluster of islands located on the Northern Coast of Norway, just above the Arctic Circle. The festival was initiated in 1991. LIAF is organized by the North Norwegian Art Centre (NNKS).
LIAF and NNKS receive operational support from the Arts Council Norway, the counties of Finnmark, Troms and Nordland and the municipality of Vågan.
LIAF 2019 has received project support from SpareBank 1 Nord-Norge, Nordic Council of Ministers, Fritt Ord foundation, the Finnish-Norwegian Cultural Institute, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, the Nordic Culture Fund, Creative Industries Fund NL, US Embassy Oslo, Frame Finland, Bergen Center for Electronic Arts and Barentskult.
