Bergen Centre for Electronic Arts

Multidisciplinary artist Mark Fell is back in Bergen. During his May residency he has participated in The Pirate Academy and leads the continuation of his workshop series “Rewilding Practice”.

Fell’s residency is organised in cooperation between BEK and KORO’s project STUDIO at KMD, exploring studio practices and work processes in fine art, music and design. The first part of Fell’s residency took place in autumn 2021, when he led the workshop series “Rewilding Practice” with philosopher Robin Mackay and a multidisciplinary group of local participants examining and questioning established beliefs about creative practice. Fell and Mackay were also discussing the relationship between theory and practice as a part of BEK’s symposium The Only Lasting Truth is Change. The conversation between Fell and Mackay is now available at Mark Fell & Robin Mackay: Rewilding Practice – 20 November 2021

As our artist in residence, and as part of the collaboration between STUDIO and BEK, Mark Fell was joined by Jan Hendrickse for the new edition of The Pirate Academy at Bergen School of Architecture (BAS) 9 May. The Pirate Academy is an experimental meeting point run by the Bergen Art Academy, aimed at creative research practices and methods. The BAS edition brought into focus the theme of Conviviality through performances and presentations activating the distinctive space of the basement beneath the silos as well as a number of structures, such as a mobile studio and a sauna, built in collaboration by students at KMD and BAS.

Jan Hendrickse is an artist whose practice encompasses composition, sound art, installations and improvisation. As a performing flutist, he has an extended vocabulary of techniques based not just on western musical systems, but also on his research into woodwind traditions around the world. During The Pirate Academy at BAS, Hendrickse led a workshop where approximately 50 flutes were made by the audience and later used for a performance in the BAS silos. The participants played an improvised piece led by Hendrickse and Fell, following preliminary exercises and discussions within the group. In a room only lit by candles, each participant played their way towards the centre from the periphery to put out a light, until only one or two flutes could be heard in complete darkness.

Other participants included Vic Fracker, Brandon LaBelle and Joy Forum. The event was organised in cooperation with KORO’s project STUDIO at KMD and BEK, Kunstakademiet i Bergen/KMD, Institutt for kunst and Bergen School of Architecture. See STUDIO website for details.

On 11 May, Fell resumes his workshop series “Rewilding Practice”, continuing the discussions which were initiated in autumn 2021. The May session, taking place physically in Bergen, will be in the form of a discursive hike across the local peaks of Damsgårdsfjellet and Gravdalsfjellet. Inspired by Nietzsche’s statement “Never trust an idea that has not come to mind while walking”, Fell has asked each participant to prepare a question or problem for the group to discuss in different altitude ranges.

Mark Fell

Mark Fell is a multidisciplinary artist based in Rotherham (UK). His practice draws upon electronic music subcultures, experimental film, contemporary philosophy and radical politics. Over the past 30 years Fell’s output has grown into a significant body of work – from early electronic sound works and recorded pieces, to installation, critical texts, curatorial projects, educational systems and choreographic performances. His recent works, drawing from sacred geometries to programming structures, underline Fell’s particular interest in non-linear systems and structures, and our complex inter-relationships with them. http://www.markfell.com/