UKE 35 2024

Uke 35
Fagfestival
August 29 - August 31, 2024

Week 35 is an annual professional festival aimed at an audience interested in a comprehensive understanding of art, architecture, urban development, and public spaces. This year's theme focuses on how fundamental principles in the practice of architecture and art create "spaces of possibility." 

Uke 35 2024. Photo of Stein Rønning, re-fused vertical II, 2024

During a three-day seminar, we will explore the relationship between form, color, and space, and how these elements influence ethics, values, and new narratives for the future. We will meet artists and architects who will share their practices, and together we will discuss how form, color, and space are not only physical manifestations with definitional power but also have speculative, poetic, and metaphysical implications. For example, we will consider the question:  

How does the space accommodate the form, and for whom is the space intended?

We look forward to sharing three days with you, someone who is interested in the "space of possibilities" created through architecture and art!

Louwrien Wijers and Petrine Vinje. Photo: Carsten Aniksdal

Day 1: Unlocking the Spaces of Possibility!
Kl. 10.00 - 20.00

August 29th marks the start of "Uke 35," where we dive deep into the intersection of art, architecture, and urban development. Our focus? Exploring how form, color, and space shape ethics, values, and future narratives. We’re thrilled to hear from artist, thinker and writer Louwrien Wijers, artists Ingrid Bjørnaali, Sveinung Rudjord Unneland and Ane Hjort Guttu, artist and cook Egon Hanfstingl, and Architects without Borders, as they share their insights on how spaces accommodate forms—and who these spaces are truly for. Together, we will explore not just the physical manifestations, but the speculative implications of form, space and colour.

Day 2: Delving into the Power of Form, Colour and Space!
Kl. 10.00 - 16.00

The discussions continue at "Uke 35" with an exciting lineup including phenomenologist Dr. Marcus Weisen, whose speciality is in the Non-Conscious Dimensions of Architectural Encounter, architect Armelle Breuil from ACT!, artists Øystein Aasan, Magnhild Øen Nordahl and Stein Rønning. We will also visit Muralverkstedet, and the artists working there. On August 30th, we're diving deeper into how form, colour and space are not just physical entities but also carriers of ethics, speculation, and poetic narratives. How do these elements shape our built environments and public spaces? Let’s find out together.

Day 3: Shaping Tomorrow's Narratives Today!
Kl. 10.00 - 15.00

On August 31st, we will conclude "Uke 35," with presentations and discussions led by artists curators and architects Vera Wyller of KOSA, and Steffen Håndlykken. The final day focuses on how the fundamental principles of form, color, and space can drive the future of art and architecture - and points to how these principles work within the educational and artistrun institutions and initiatives.

Contributors for Week 35

Ane Hjort Guttu

Ane Hjort Guttu er billedkunstner og filmskaper bosatt i Oslo. Hun arbeider innenfor en rekke ulike medier, men har i de siste årene hovedsakelig konsentrert seg om film- og videoverk som spenner fra undersøkende dokumentarfilm til poetisk fiksjon. Arbeidene hennes tar for seg forholdet mellom frihet og makt, økonomi og offentlig rom, sosial endring og enkeltpersoners handlingsrom. Guttu er også aktiv som kurator og skribent, og hun er professor ved Kunsthøyskolen i Oslo, avd. Kunstakademiet.

Armelle Breuil

Armelle Breuil (b. 1992) is a trained architect from the École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture Paris-Val de Seine (2017). In 2020, she obtained the Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) and founded the office ACT! after having worked at and learned about an ecological approach to building concepts and designing various kindergartens in offices in Oslo. Her passion for architecture comes from a need to design alternative ways of living. She is highly active in the climate movement, as she believes the time for just talking about the ongoing ecological collapse is over; it is time to ACT!. Armelle is a co-founder of Architects Climate Action Network Norway (ACAN) and is the international coordinator for the UK branch. Armelle is passionate about social justice and part of Safe Space Collective, as well as JAM Collective.

Egon Hanfstingl. Photo: Carsten Aniksdal

Egon Hanfstingl is a trained chef, and has worked side by side with Louwrien Wijerssince the late 80s. In their residence in the Herengracht in Amsterdam, Egon's interest in holism and food contributed to a community of central figures in European art life.

Starting in 2012, he has brought people together through collective cooking, through the concept: Cooking Together / Eating Together / Speaking Together.

Ingrid Bjørnaali

Ingrid Bjørnaali (f. 1991) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Oslo. In her practice, she records specific biotopes in various states of their ongoing world-building processes. With an aim to learn from our surrounding nature and co-existing species, she makes intimate close-up readings through e.g. photogrammetry that relates to satellite mapping and mediation of anthropocentric spaces and monuments. Her works explore the omnipresence of the digital in our experience of the world as well as the inability of technology to articulate matter’s complexity. She obtained an MFA in 2021 from the Oslo National Academy of the Arts, with parts of the studies spent in Helsinki at the Taideyliopiston Kuvataideakatemia’s “Time and Space Arts”. Works have been exhibited in i.a. Toronto, Helsinki, Berlin, Milano, Zagreb, Tallinn, Reykjavik og Timișoara.

Irma Salo Jæger, photo: Anne Valeur.

Irma Salo Jæger (f. 1928 i Finland og har bodd i Oslo siden 1950-tallet) er en anerkjent norsk billedkunstner. Hun arbeider hovedsakelig med maleri og gjorde seg bemerket innen modernistisk abstraksjon på 1960-tallet. I perioden 1986–92 var hun professor ved Statens kunstakademi i Oslo og har hele sin karriere engasjert seg for kunstutdanning og fagpolitikk.

Louwrien Wijers. Foto: Carsten Aniksdal

Louwrien Wijers is a sculptor, and published the book "Writing is Sculpture" (1996). Having worked with Joseph Beuys from 1968 to 1986, she, like him, sees writing, speaking and thinking as sculpture. Wijers organized the conference "Art meets Science and Spirituality in a changing Economy" at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (1990). Here she explored the new paradigm for a holistic world view and the implications for a global economy. The conference was attended by artists such as Robert Rauschenberg, Lawrence Weiner, Joseph Beuys, together with scientists such as David Bohm, Fritjof Capra and Francesco Varela as well as the Dalai Lama and Mother Tessa Bielecki. Louwrien Wijers called the five-day conference a "mental sculpture". In 2010, she laid her decree "Don't Lie / Don't Steal / Don't Kill // Grains / Vegetables / Beans" as a solid foundation for a world economy, a world household. Wijers lives and works in Leeuwarden, the Netherlands, from where she also holds talks with Taiwan's Minister of Digital Affairs, Audrey Tang (2023).

Magnhild Øenh Nordahl

Magnhild Øen Nordahl is a visual artist living and working in Bergen, Norway. Through mediums like sculpture and installations Nordahl examines how abstractions in 3D-modeling, science and technology shapes perceptions, working practices and the making of things. Nordahl has co-founded Aldea Center for Contemporary Art, Design and Technology and is doing a PhD in artistic research at the University of Bergen.

Marcus Weisen

Marcus Weisen has researched the non-conscious experience of architecture and museums - with a particular focus on Peter Zumthor's Kolumba, in Cologne. He completed his PhD at the École Normale Supérieure Paris in 2023. Weisen has interviewed and published on the Finnish architect Juhani Pallasmaa for a number of years. He is also a museum consultant who focuses on "access with elegance" in museums and historic buildings. As an expert on intellectual and sensory accessibility for people with disabilities, he has carried out assignments for, among others, Louvre Museum, School of Design Nantes Atlantique, the British Museum, English Heritage, Cultural Heritage Norway and the European Blind Union. Marcus is part of the Micro-phenomenology laboratory, led by Claire Petitmengin.

Paola Bornaschella

Paola Bornaschella holds a master’s degree in architecture from the University of Architecture, Design, and Urbanism at Universidad de Buenos Aires in Argentina. With a solid 14 years of experience in architectural design across all phases and scales, from small private buildings to large, complex projects such as masterplans, healthcare facilities, and multifunctional buildings, Paola is passionate about social architecture. She is an initiator, team leader, and board member of Architects Without Borders (AUG) Norway, a humanitarian organization working to create architecture that fosters an inclusive society and enhances quality of life.

Steffen Håndlykken. Photo: Jan Khür

Steffen Håndlykken is an artist based in Eidsvoll verk, Akershus. He is a graduate from the National Academy of the Arts, Oslo, where he was part of the final group of student in the Institute for Colour. From 2020 to 2024 he was chair of the board for the artist union UKS. In 2010 he established the project space 1857 with Stian Eide Kluge, which they ran until 2019. Håndlykken was curator of the 9th Norwegian Sculpture Biennial at the Vigeland Museum in 2017. He has previously served as editor of UKS-forum and written for Kunstkritikk.no and Billedkunst, and is currently a member of the expert committee for visual art organisers under the Arts Council Norway.

Stein Rønning

Stein Rønning (b. 1953) in Askim, Norway, received his artistic education from The Trondheim Academy of Fine Art and Vestlandets Kunstakademi in Bergen. After several decades of teaching and holding professorships at Oslo National Academy of the Arts and Bergen Academy of Arts and Design, Rønning has exhibited regularly in recent years, as well as publishing a series of smaller publications and two monographs.

Sveinung Rudjord Unneland

Sveinung Rudjord Unneland (Bergen). Har en kunstnerisk praksis som inkluderer arbeid med abstrakt maleri og installasjon. I tillegg er han aktiv som arrangør, forlegger og scenograf for film, musikk og teater. Unneland er grunnlegger av det kunstnerdrevne galleriet Joy Forum (2018-2022) og medstifter av studiokollektivet den uferdige institusjonen (2022-). Han er utdannet ved Kunstakademiet i Bergen 2002-2007. Mellom 2012-2018 underviste han ved Kunstakademiet i Bergen. 2018-2023 var han doktorgradsstipendiat.

Unneland avsluttet sin Ph.D. i kunstnerisk forskning ved Fakultet for kunst, musikk og design, Universitetet i Bergen høsten 2023. Prosjektet Urgent Affairs, Strange Empathy undersøkte strukturelle og arkitektoniske endringer i kunstutdanningen, parallelt med at det utforsket hvordan man kan etablere autonome rom og deltakende praksis innenfor den institusjonelle konteksten som sådan.

Vera Wyller

Vera Wyller. Practicing artist - founder of K.O.S A, a collaborative site for art and research; director of K.O.S A Publications.

Born in Beograd (b. 1957), based in Oslo; trained in visual art and architecture at Parsons School of Design and the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in N.Y.C. Her practice focuses on the role of belief in the making of the world, as expressed through the materialisation of sound in drawing and architecture; her work is represented in numerous private and public collections in Norway and abroad.

Øystein Aasan

Øystein Aasan (b. 1977) received his education from the National Collage of Art and Design, Oslo. His practice uses architecture, collage, sculpture and painting to address memory, the function of images and the place of the viewer. He has exhibited internationally in museums, institutions and galleries since 2003. Aasan has written essays and reviews for a number of international magazines since 2002.

Fullt program slippes fortløpende, endringer kan forekomme.

The project is supported by Oslo Municipality’s Cultural Agency and KORO.