Artist in Residence
VILLA LOFOTEN AIR invites artists, scientists and artisans whose diverse creative practices investigate the rural landscape, its history and its stories. In their unique ways, the artists who visit Villa Lofoten express ideas about the present, the past and the possibilities for the future.
Villa Lofoten AIR presents an ideal environment for artists concerned with rural issues. Therefore, part of the program’s goal is to establish dialogues between visiting artists and the local community. During their stay, the artist’s participate in workshops for young people and children and present about their work to the public.
The Artist in Residence program invites guest artists of different ages and from different cultures, and with a particular emphasis on women. Another goal is to strengthen Nordic cooperation with other European regions, and increase networking and relationships between these regions. The guest artists of Villa Lofoten share an interest in artistic media that can be distributed through many different channels, often to a large audience.
The landscape and architectural environment of Villa Lofoten invites itself to reflection and concentration – new life and creativity secure continuity instead of depopulation. The primary objective of Villa Lofoten AIR is to stimulate artistic production based upon resources and subject matter that is locally available, resulting in works that spark interest in local resource and environmental issues, through global perspective.
The artist program is supported by the Arts Council Norway and Nordland County Council. The restoration of the facility is financed by Villa Lofoten with support from Kulturminnefondet and Innovation Norway, and contributions from Stiftelsen UNI, the County Governor of Nordland, the National Trust of Norway, The DNB Savings Bank Foundation, Nordland County Council and Vestvågøy municipality.
2019-2021
Camilla Barratt–Due, Norway - Germany
Composer, musician and performance artist
Camilla Barratt–Due is educated as an accordionist, composer and singer. During her residency she researches shipwrecks through a particular accident; the shipwreck of D/S Havskåren off the coast of Kvalnes in 1946. Camilla’s research will result in a performative installation premiere at Stamsund International Theatre Festival 2020.
Camilla is also one of the teachers in the project Me, in the Middle of the Story with pupils from 9th grade at Bøstad secondary school. The pupils record sounds in the field with particular focus on changes in the soundscape around them. The recordings are used as material for compositions.
Olivier Touche, France
Sound designer
Olivier Touche is a sound designer who works with sound recording and sound design on various films. He works with bridges during his residency. For him, bridges can be seen as intersections between the contradictory energy forces between people’s demands (traffic, energy, water) and the inevitable limitations in nature (currents, cliffs, winds). Olivier’s project is to explore the soundscape and develop a sonic portrait of the place where the bridge is crossing the Gimsøy current in all kinds of weather conditions.
Pauline Grethen, France
Graphic designer
Pauline Grethen is a graphic designer and also works with set decoration on film productions. During her residency she works with graphic designer Ida Sæterdal with the design of the art book made by photographer Virginie Surdej and art historian Aaslaug Vaa.
Pauline is also working with the project Me, in the Middle of the Story together with pupils from 9th grade at Bøstad secondary school. A part of the project is to make a cookbook where the pupils collect recipes from their ancestors while tracing the recipes’ stories of origin. Together with chef Cecilie Steinkjer they make their own versions of the recipes and Pauline designs the cookbook in dialogue with the pupils.
Vegard Lund Johannessen, Norway
Carpenter and glass blower
Vegard Lund Johannessen is a carpenter and glass blower. Together with Sigrid Høyforsslett Bjørbæk, he runs Bruket glass studio in Bodø. Vegard is reconstructing the western part of The Fisherman’s Cabin at Kleivan together with carpenter Daniel Mabin. They are also reconstructing and furnishing the interior of the whole building.
Margrete Bjone Engelien, Norway
Architect
Margrete Bjone Engelien is a newly educated architect from The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture in Copenhagen. Through the slogan protection through use, she has contributed to the restoration and extension of the barn at the farm of Villa Lofoten. The barn will be reconstructed into a multi use house, with a sound studio, working stations,
a meeting room, and a venue for different events that holds up to 30 people. The work is a collaboration between carpenter Daniel Mabin, engineer Jossi Pettersen, and owner
Aaslaug Vaa in dialogue with Einar Engen and Gunhild Ryen in The Cultural Heritage Fund.
Daniel Mabin, Norway – Australia
Carpenter
Daniel Mabin is a carpenter educated in Australia. He is reconstructing the western part of The Fisherman’s Cabin at Kleivan together with carpenter Vegard Lund Johannessen. They are also reconstructing and furnishing the interior of the whole building. Daniel is also participating in the project plan for the restoration, and the extension of the barn together with guest artist and architect Margrete Bjone Engelien.
2015-2018
Marit Grimstad Eggen, Norway
Dramaturge
Marit Grimstad Eggen is a dramaturge. She works with stage artist Eirik Fauske. They are developing the performance We are this eye. The work is a search for a larger we, and an investigation of various forms of audience fellowship. The performance is shown under the Lofoten International Theatre Festival as a pilot in 2018, and full performance in 2019.
Eirik Fauske, Norway
Playwrighter and director
Eirik Fauske is a playwrighter and director. He works with the dramaturge Marit Grimstad Eggen. They are developing the performance We are this eye. The work is a search for a larger we, and an investigation of various forms of audience fellowship. The performance is shown under the Lofoten Theater Festival as a pilot in 2018, and full performance in 2019.
Julie Skarland, Norway
Fashion designer and textile artist
Julie Skarland is a fashion designer and textile artist. She has lived and worked in Paris for 20 years, and in New-Dehli for the past 11 years. During her stays in Villa Lofoten, Julie develops works within textile, film and fashion based on her sensual impressions and human encounters in Lofoten.
Annick Ligtermoet, Finland
Fine-art photographer
Annick Ligtermoet is a photographer. She explores and documents nature's own processes, moulds biomass into objects, and explores seaweed and kelp as artistic material.
Gry Rask Sørensen, Norway
Visual artist
Gry Rask Sørensen is a visual artist. She explores how local plants and crops can be used as materials and dyes in textile installations.
Ingela Magner, Sweden
Author and director
Author and film director Ingela Magner’s work centers around Scandinavian stories for children about life during the High Middle Ages, based on historical materials and archaeological findings.
Camilla Figenschou, Norway
Visual artist
Visual artist Camilla Figenschou works with photography and moving images. She strives for an attentive camera eye. In her residency project she rewrites actual local relationships to cinematic fictional fragments.
Hanna Ljungh, Sweden
Visual artist
Hanna Ljungh is a visual artist. For a long time, she has devoted herself to artistic studies of materials we refer to as stone, meadow, soil, land and mountains. During her residency, Ljungh works with a sensory cinematic approach as a method in a new 16 mm film.
Dan Isaac Wallin, Sweden
Photographer
Through his distinctive poetic style, photographer Dan Isaac Wallin works
actively with themes of proportions between humans and their surroundings.
In his repeated investigations of the Lofoten landscape, he almost insists on capturing constancy and immutability. He works primarily with Polaroid and alternative photographic processes.
Acacia Johnson, USA
Fine-art photographer
Acacia Johnson is a fine-art photographer with a focus on the Polar Regions of the earth. She is utilizes the photographic image to investigate the relationships between humans and nature in the circumpolar Arctic.
Tor Edvin Eliassen, Norway
Cinematographer
Tor Edvin Eliassen is a student of film photography at the Film School in Lodz in Poland. He is also a photographer and assistant in several projects run by Villa Lofoten.
Virginie Surdej, Belgium
Photographer and cinematographer
Virginie Surdej is a fine-art photographer and cinematographer.
In her work, she explores the passage of time in the landscape, in architecture and in humans. Her viewers are invited to reflect upon
the concepts of history, memory and reminiscence.
Jørn Nyseth Ranum, Norway
Director and film photographer
Jørn Nyseth Ranum is a film director and photographer. Together with astrophysicist Jean Surdej, he conducts workshops in film and astrophysics with teenagers. The project results in the movie Children of Stars.
Frøya Thue, Norway
Designer
Frøya Thue is a service designer. She has developed Villa Lofoten's website while the restoration of the buildings has been going on.
Nanna Frank Møller, Denmark
Director, cinematographer and editor
Nanna Frank Møller is a film director, cinematographer and editor.
Uffe Black Nielsen, Denmark
Architect
Uffe Black Nielsen is an architect. In collaboration with the owner,
he has documented and projected the restoration of the buildings
worthy of conservation which Villa Lofoten owns in the harbour:
The Fisherman’s Cabin, The Saltery, The Steamery and the quay.
Eystein Greibrokk, Norway
Traditional Artisan
Eystein Greibrokk is a traditional artisan. He restores the stove and brick pipe in
The Steamery and leads the restoration and upgrading of the quay. Eystein is
a specialist in clay and dry walling. During the work on the quay, he brings
with him the bricklayer Anders Lyche Oppegaard, www.ragg.no
and Karl Kristiansen from Lofothau to operate the excavator.
Torgeir Thorsen, Norway
Traditional Artisan and craftsman
Torgeir Thorsen is a traditional artisan and craftsman. His material is wood;
he restores buildings, boats and objects. Being from Vesterålen, Torgeir knows the
local building tradition. The Steamery has been his restoration project. Based on the architect's drawings, and together with other artisans, he has led and carried out the reconstruction of a ruin to a habitable house that still stands on pillars in the sea.
Geir Losnegaard, Norway
Furniture carpenter
Geir Losnegaard is a goldsmith and furniture carpenter. He designs and
builds place-built furniture’s on the 1st and 2nd floor of The Saltery.
