With or without you Bergen

"> In January 2010 I had an exhibition in the student gallery Kaffistofa that was titled “With or without you Bergen”. The exhibition involved a video performance that I did in relation to Edvard Grieg, the composer. When I didn't get the chance to see the Edvard Grieg museum in Bergen I decided to do my own version of it. Which involved a performance in the role of the museum director and a recreation of the museum itself. With this performance I contemplated what a place mediates, how we define it and experience it in our memories, in our imagination.

Also for this exhibition I showed a video of an oil station and played a sound piece which involves me walking up to people in Bergen and asking them the question: “What can you tell me about this place?” In this piece I work with the idea of Foucault’s heterotopia.

I continued with this performance in Vilnius and will also do in the other cities as well.

In Bergen I put postcards in random postboxes and got sent back 4 out of 10. For the exhibition I scanned them and printed out. They were in a rack in the exhibition space and people could take with them if they wanted. By doing so I kept the process continuous and open.

I got published an article about the exhibition and the project in an Icelandic newspaper, there I mention the project in general and the process: