Maria Rusinovskaya becomes new director at BEK
Published
We are happy and proud to announce that Maria Rusinovskaya will be the new director at BEK from 1st December. Rusinovskaya is well known in Bergen’s art and cultural scene as an energetic, inclusive and visionary person. Through her work as a curator for Live Programmes at Bergen Kunsthall and previously as an artistic project manager for Pikene på broen, she has extensive experience in developing new programme strategies, curating and leading the production of new, interdisciplinary commissioned works and programmes, facilitating artistic research and developing new ways to present these projects. We look forward to working with Rusinovskaya and fully support her ambitions for BEK to be a clear and powerful voice for art and new technology in society.
“It is incredibly exciting to be joining BEK – a key player in the city’s creative scene, which engages, encourages and supports artists in the use of new technology”, says Rusinovskaya. “I look forward to participating in new experiments, taking risks and inspiring innovation. Together with a fantastic future-oriented team, the strong local environment and input from international networks, I look forward to continuing BEK’s reputation as a clear and powerful voice in today’s debate about art, science, technology and the world around us.”
Rusinovskaya will take on the role of director of BEK on 1st December. The chairwoman of the board at BEK, Marit Paasche, would like to thank the current director Lars Ove Toft. After the end of his tenure and a short overlap period, Toft will take on new challenges in the New Year.
“Lars Ove Toft has done an unbelievably good job for BEK during the years he has been director. His great contribution is one of the reasons why BEK has such a significant and important position in Norwegian culture. He will forever be a bastion in this environment.”
Paasche emphasises that together with BEK, Rusinovskaya will champion the relevance of art and new technology in the public discourse.
“Maria Rusinovskaya is a very skilled curator and producer with an impressive national and international network. Her experience from the curatorial collective Pikene på broen, from Sonic Acts and as curator for Live Programmes at Bergen Kunsthall, as well as her clear ambition to lift art and new technology into the public debate, makes us confident that she is the right person to lead BEK into a new era.”
Maria Rusinovskaya (b. 1981) has since 2014 been curator of Live Programmes at Bergen Kunsthall, where she has developed and presented a comprehensive programme with discursive series, music programmes, performances and presentation of moving images. From 2007–2014, she was an artistic project manager in Pikene på broen, where the areas of work also included programme development and production for international interdisciplinary cultural projects such as the festival Barents Spektakel, Barents Art Triennale, and the BAR International artist-in-residence programme. Rusinovskaya has extensive experience in developing new programme strategies for organisations, curating, and leading the production of new, interdisciplinary commissioned works and programme series, facilitating artistic research and developing new ways to present these projects. This includes projects with young Norwegian artists, such as Stine Janvin, Sandra Mujinga, Erin Sexton, and Emilija Škarnulytė. It also includes collaborations with leading international figures who in various ways use or problematise new technology in their work (including Mark Fell, Russell Haswell, Emily Wardill, Susan Schuppli, Barby Asante, Petra Bauer, Timothy Morton, Black Quantum Futurism). Through her work, she has developed an extensive network in art, production, theory and research environments in and outside of Norway. Former partners include Urbanomic (UK), Novel (UK), Sonic Acts (NL), Fridaymilk (RU), Ràdio Web MACBA (ES), A4 (SK), Ina GRM (FR), Disruption Network Lab (DK) and Container (HR). She also worked as a researcher at the Murmansk Museum of Art in Russia.