Latent City
Published
Latent City presents artistic productions dealing with the city’s hidden stories. Seen through the lens of artistic observation, latent infrastructures and questions of digital presence and of power and democracy in our cities, meet in an exhibition that takes place over three weeks. The Latent City is the city that awaits, the one that is about to unfold, our common future city.
Several of the art projects are financed or commissioned by BEK, while others are existing works presented in new formats. A video program will be on show throughout the project period and there will be an extensive program of talks and performances. Please find programme below.
Please note: The events will be streamed from Bergen Kjøtt, and art projects will be shown online at bek.no Details in the programme below. No audiences can be present at Bergen Kjøtt due to current covid-19 restrictions for events in Bergen.
The title Latent City is inspired by the term “latent space” from machine learning and artificial intelligence. Latent space refers to the pool of compressed data that the machine analyzes in order to extract knowledge from, and where algorithmic computations often are so complex that they become opaque and gain a life of their own. Latent City thus approaches the city structures that are obscured from our view: infrastructures such as wi-fi and surveillance technology, more-than-human perspectives from animals and nature, and political factors that involve power relations and social exclusion. Sci-fi visions of the city and contemplations on city planning point to new possibilities as well as pitfalls.
Contributions by: Aleksander Johan Andreassen, Aske Thiberg, GaraGara Artist Initiative, Gitte Sætre & Frans Jacobi, Hanan Benammar, Hannevold/Prati/Qin/Shomali, Jan Mocek, Jonas Ersland, Kaeto Sweeney, Maren Dagny Juell, Marit Eikemo, Nayara Leite, Pia Rönicke, Stelios Manousakis, Stephen Connolly, Thure Erik Lund, Tivon Rice, Trond Lossius, VUMA Projects, Søssa Jørgensen & Yngvild Færøy. The programme is developed by BEK.
Latent City programme
12 – 29 NOVEMBER 2020 AT BERGEN KJØTT
Please follow the links in the programme to read more about the individual projects and artists. The programme is subject to change.
Exhibition
The art projects will be presented online from 12 November at 19.00 – 29 November. Please follow the links to see and read more about the different projects.
It fits beautifully in the palm of your hand by Maren Dagny Juell, video installation
The Carrier by Hanan Benammar, video installation
www.ShowMeLove, Marit Eikemo, text (Norwegian only)
VUMA Soner, app with geo-triggered audio walks (plus guided walks)
Temporary Museum: Microscopic Power of Food Practices by GaraGara Artist Initiative, installation, DIY sound generator from fruit, and workshops
Watch the video programme here.
The video programme will be shown at bek.no from 12 – 29 November with these contributions:
Centarium by Aleksander Johan Andreassen (21:58)
Now I see things for the way it is by Aske Thiberg (29:54)
Public Waiters by Jonas Ersland (03:44)
Zonen by Pia Rönicke (22:34)
Machine Space by Stephen Connolly (24:20)
Environment Built for Absence (an unofficial/artificial sequel to J.G. Ballard’s «High Rise») by Tivon Rice (17:45)
Events programme
The events on 12, 14, 21 and 29 November will be streamed from Bergen Kjøtt when the event starts.
Most events will be live streamed only, in other words a recording will not be available after the event. Join us when it happens!
Please find details in the programme. Info and links for streaming events will be updated continously.
Thursday 12 November
19.00 – 22.00 Official opening of the exhibition
***Please find details about the programme here***
Opening speech by Katrine Nødtvedt, Commissioner for Culture, Diversity and Equality, City of Bergen
Release of VUMA Soner, a geo-localised app created by VUMA Projects
Environment Built for Absence (an unofficial/artificial sequel to J.G. Ballard’s «High Rise»), Tivon Rice, video screening
Are You Ready?, Gitte Sætre & Frans Jacobi, performance
First kiss before anything once, Kaeto Sweeney, performance
Dj Jiska Huizing
Saturday 14 November
12.00 VUMA Projects, guided audio walk (ca. 2 hours)
12.00 (CANCELLED) DIY Food Audio Generator, GaraGara Artist Initiative, workshop
16.00 Presentationon of the video programme by Anders Rubing (30 min., recording available)
18.00 Virtual Ritual, Jan Mocek, video screening of recorded performance (70 min., recording available)
Sunday 15 November
12.00 (POSTPONED) Extracting Food DNA, GaraGara Artist Initiative, workshop
Saturday 21 November
12.00 – 14.00 (CANCELLED) VUMA Projects, guided audio walk (ca. 2 hours)
14.00 – 19.00 Latent City – Invisible Fields #1
***This event will be streamed and one can participate via Zoom – please find details about the programme and how to register here***
Thure Erik Lund, reading
Maren Dagny Juell and Thure Erik Lund in conversation with Magnhild Øen Nordahl
Nayara Leite, performance
Hertzian Field #2, Stelios Manousakis, performance/recording
Firebird, Parsa Shomali/Teresa Prati/Anders Hannevold/Juan Qin, concert/performance
Anders Rubing, lecture
VUMA Projects, presentation and conversation with Maria Rusinovskaya and Anders Rubing
Edgelands, Trond Lossius, multichannel sound work
Saturday 28 November
12.00 VUMA Projects, guided audio walk (ca. 2 hours)
Søndag 29 November
12.00 VUMA Projects, guided audio walk (ca. 2 hours)
14.00 – 17.00 Latent City – Invisible Fields #2
***This event will be live streamed and one can participate via Zoom – please find details about the programme and how to register here***
Between Humans & Animals in Bergen, Søssa Jørgensen & Yngvild Færøy, live radio
The Carrier, Hanan Benammar, video screening
Are You Ready?, Gitte Sætre & Frans Jacobi, premiere of online TV-series
– and two conversations moderated by Maud Ceuterick
Latent City
Latent City coincides with the celebration of BEK’s 20th anniversary in 2020 as a pioneering resource centre and springboard for artistic projects to come to life, at the forefront of art and technology. This year, BEK revitalises its history by showing art projects from the archive, and looks into the technological developments of the past 20 years, from a societal perspective. For Latent City, we have commissioned new works of art and texts, with support from the Arts Council Norway, Bergen Municipality and Fritt Ord Foundation.
Latent City is BEK’s culminating project for Future DiverCities, a four year long EU collaboration supported by the Creative Europe programme. The project has investigated new ways of collaboration while focusing on artistic production to examine our future cities. Please see Future DiverCities for more information. BEK receives funding from Arts Council Norway, City of Bergen, and Vestland County.
Latent City is developed by the team at BEK, and is realized in collaboration with these wonderful people:
Laurie Lax: Production assistant, and producer for GaraGara Artist Initiative, Kaeto Sweeney, and VUMA Projects
Azar Alsharif: Press and communication
Sara Bruteig Olsen: Press and communication (maternal leave)
Stian Remvik: Workshop host
Emelie Ieremia: Production and exhibition host
Jonas Skarmark: Sound technician and tecnhnical magicien
Andreas Lassen: Sound technician
Hans Skogen: Lights
Paul Johannessen: Video documentation
Thor Brødreskift: Photo documentation
Luke Drozd: Visual design
Bergen Kjøtt
This exhibition /event is made possible at Bergen Kjøtt with the support of Bergen Kunsthall, Bergen kommune, Kulturrom, Arena Akustikk and BN Visuals.
Bergen Kjøtt takes seriously the guidelines related to COVID-19 and public events. Events will be streamed, and art projects will be shown online at bek.no due to current covid-19 restriction in Bergen.
