Artist in residence at Havrå

2 to 15 September 2018 and 6 January to 2 February 2019

Havrå is a pristine farm located at Solstranda in Osterøy municipality on the west coast of Norway. It is located on an island about 30 minutes’ drive from Bergen and listed as a national heritage site by the Norwegian Ministry of the Environment.

The farm is managed by Museumssenteret i Hordaland (the museum of Hordaland) with a particular mandate on research and documentation of local technologies for farming (working methods, tools, livestock breeds and plant species). The main objective is to preserve traditions and biodiversity. To achieve this, they are maintaining ancient working methods through practical work with traditional tools. The farm houses the old Norwegian sheep and cattle breeds termed gamalnorsk sau and vestnorsk fjordfe, and they grow traditional types of grains, potatoes and fruit.

Together with my colleague and dear friend Maia Birkeland, I have spent three summer seasons working here in the haymaking season. We lived in one of the tiny farmhouses, spending every minute of the day together: Up for breakfast, haymaking until lunch, haymaking after lunch, dinner, and evening. Throughout all these phases we ended up having deeply interesting conversations of art and life.

It was a life of toil, and for urban people like us, it provided a small taste of how the daily life must have been for a farmer back in the past centuries. It really gave us new perspectives to life and gave rise to new ideas in our artistic process. The outcome was an artist residency at Havrå and Osterøy Museum, scheduled for two periods; two weeks in September 2018, and four weeks in January 2019.

This residency became the backdrop for the three following duo-exhibitions: Tida det tar. Tida vi har. (The time it takes. The time we have.) at Osterøy Museum, 2019, Hendene. Jorda. (The hands. The earth.) Hordaland Kunstsenter, 2021 and Oldemor, bestemor, mor, meg. (Great grandma, grandma, mother, me) at Galleri FORMAT, 2021.