Lofoten International Art Festival – LIAF 2019
High Tides and Kelp Congress
August 30–September 29, 2019
The curatorial team of LIAF 2019 are proud to present a programme of High Tides spanning across five weekends throughout the LIAF exhibition month of September, including the Kelp Congress—an event exploring the artistic and cultural dimensions related to kelp and other macroalgae.
LIAF 2019 takes its inspiration from the multitude of inhabitants, materials, struggles, and processes that reside and take place within the wide intertidal zone surrounding the Lofoten islands. In this intertidal zone creeps the starfish—our curatorial companion of the 2019 edition of LIAF—with an eye on each arm, a witness to several events at once. These arms are waving with gestures suggestive of camaraderie, struggle, excitement, curiosity, and movement for the sake of movement. Expansive rather than focused, the curatorial arms have aimed to open up a set of diverse conversations that can entangle and connect in unfamiliar ways. Not only based within each of the locations where LIAF has been embedded throughout the year, the curatorial arms each form a varied programme of High Tides, featuring talks, performances, film screenings, DJ sets, and live music taking place in Svolvær throughout the five weekends of the festival.
Opening Weekend
August 30-31
The opening weekend of the festival is the first in a series of High Tides. Live music, DJ sets, performances, film screenings, and artist conversations takes place alongside the opening of the exhibition.
Thinking Tide, Sensing Scale
September 7
This arm draws awareness to (natural) phenomena, as well as the “apparatuses” through which events are measured and sensed.
With Grace Dillon, Greg Fox, Signe Lidén, Arjen Mulder, and Geir Olve Skeie.
Maths, Matter & Body
September 14
Seeks to explore the resonances and contradictions between human bodies, solid matter, statistics, algorithms, gravity, etc. It centres on imperfection, precision, error, pattern, and erasure, with an emphasis on embodied responses to the inexplicable and the unexplained.
From the Horse’s Mouth incl. Kelp Congress
September 20–22
Exploring resilience and community from human and other-than-human perspectives. This arm initiates the Kelp Congress, a 3-day public programme that seeks to explore the artistic and cultural dimensions related to kelp and other macroalgae. Events include: open studios, presentations of artistic research processes, a keynote lecture, talks, and kelp-related performances.
With Devil’s Apron, Sarah Blissett, Futurefarmers, Signe Johannessen, Julia Lohmann, Sabine Popp, Astrida Neimanis, and Cecilia Åsberg.
Splash, Stress & Elasticity
September 28
Humans & their space. This conversation stitches together topics such as migrational patterns, Neoliberal Capitalism, and the seasonal overpopulation that occurs throughout the tourist season in Lofoten. It explores notions of pressure and tension, and the infrastructures that attempt to cope with these rhythmic and cyclic movements.
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. LIAF is organized by the North Norwegian Art Centre (NNKS). The curatorial team of LIAF 2019 consists of Hilde Methi, Neal Cahoon, Karolin Tampere, and Torill Østby Haaland.