Bergen Centre for Electronic Arts

Kaeto and Åse will present BEKs work in the intersection of contemporary art, technology and social critique. How to make space to work critically in the field of art and new technology where many of the tools and power are taken over by doomsday rhetoric and fascists? They will present BEKs program of commissioned work, residencies, workshops and discursive practice, and how BEK aims to hold space for critical voices, practices and collaborations.

Tuesday
21 April 16:00–18:00
KHIO library
Fossveien 24

Open Forum is a student-run initiative from the Academy of Fine Art in Oslo that facilitates lectures, talks and other live events within fluid settings. We gather the voices of different cultural workers, artists, curators and organizations operating in and out of Norway, to create a dynamic space for a meaningful exchange of ideas and debate between our community.

Åse Løvgren

Åse Løvgren (1975, Norway) is an artist based in Bergen, Norway. Her practice concerns an investigation of how geopolitical entanglements leave material, historical and political traces locally. By using her immediate surroundings on the West Coast of Norway as prisms, she looks at how they are connected to a globally dispersed production and economy that entails destruction of nature and social and economical inequality. With artist and curator Karolin Tampere she has been the recipient of ISCP in New York, iaspis residency in Sweden, and done projects with le Pavilion/Palais de Tokyo. Together with artist Stine Gonsholt she has exhibited in group exhibitions at Norwegian National Museum, the annual Autumn exhibition in Oslo and Kassel international film festival. She was working as co-artistic research leader on the artistic research project the Vision Machine at the University of Bergen, Norway, and she was curator at the live event space Landmark at Bergen Kunsthall. Currently she holds a 5 year working grant from Arts and Culture Norway, and a 30% position at BEK – Bergen Center for Electronic Arts as project developer in art and technology.

Kaeto Sweeney

Kaeto Sweeney (b. 1993, UK) is an artist based in Bergen. He is a performer, film maker and party maker particularly interested in symbols of freedoms from a queer lens. His work is built upon reflections of the agency a queer body takes on in public space – exploring various “ways of being seen”, underlining “lived experience” as a knowledge and affect. His work has been presented Bergen Kunstall, Lydgalleriet (Bergen), NITJA (Lillestrøm), Hordaland Kunstsenter (Bergen), Statens kunstutstilling — Høstutstillingen at Kunstnernes Hus (Oslo), Oslo Internasjonale Teaterfestival at Black Box teater (Oslo), and has had collaborations with OCA — Office for Contemporary Art Norway and BIT. He holds an MA from the Bergen Art Academy (KMD, UiB) and a BA from l’Ecole Nationale d’Arts Paris-Cergy (ENSAPC). Kaeto is one half of the artist duo, Nayara Leite & Kaeto Sweeney, and is the founder and artistic director of queer platform: ASTERISK. In addition to his art practice, he has 40% position at BEK – Bergen Center for Electronic Arts as project coordinator.