In ROM Studio, artists, architects, researchers, and theorists will be part of the team at the exhibition venue. This period marks the beginning of an open and experimental collaboration where we aim to make artistic work processes and methods accessible to the public in various ways. 

Andersen will further develop the project «Pasientens arkitekturhistorie – en ufullstendig guide». As part of her doctoral project at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts, Eknæs will examine the relationship between artwork, context, and ROM's institutional role. You can find more information about their practices below in the text.

For the time being, we are pleased to present films that you can watch anytime, anywhere during the period! Due to the current COVID-19 regulations in Oslo municipality, the audience will not have the opportunity to visit the gallery at Maridalsveien 3 and therefore cannot physically participate as observers in the work that Eknæs and Andersen are engaged in. However, Andersen and Eknæs will still be part of the ROM team during this period, and ROM will share investigations and reflections digitally while the work is ongoing.

Anna Ulrikke Andersen: Architecture Beyond Sight (2019) 

The film follows Zoe Legg and Clarke Reynolds partaking on a study week for blind and visually impaired people at The Bartlett UCL, coordinated by The DisOrdinary Architecture Project. Investigating the two participant’s process of making, the film explores the non-visual aspects of architecture shot on 16mm film with sound recorded separately. By highlighting different ways that bringing visually impaired people into architecture and design could benefit the profession, the project is based on the assertion that to have a vision does not require sight. 

Marte Eknæs og Michael Amstad: People Mover (2017) 
The film premiered at UKS in 2017 

By combining documentary material, found film clips, and 2D/3D animation, "People Mover" portrays the construction and daily life of an imaginary city founded on unstable ground. In a circular composition of service, maintenance, and destruction, the city caters to the consumption needs of its population as well as the demands of short-term visitors, weekend tourists, and start-ups. A "people mover" is a form of public transportation that serves airports, neighborhoods, and amusement parks, among other places. In "People Mover," the train drives the narrative through an urban landscape shaped by rapid development, pop-up architecture, major public events, food deliveries, surface maintenance, cruise tourism, and trade fairs. Blending fiction and reality, Eknæs' drawings and sculptures come to life in these surroundings, surreally intertwined with existing street architecture and public surfaces.

"The library":

We have asked both Andersen and Eknæs to share three books that are important to their practices and projects, and provide a brief description of why and how these books influence their work:

Anna Ulrikke Andersen has chosen:

1. Doing Disability Differently: An Alternative Handbook to Architecture (2014) by Jos Boys
The British architect Jos Boys is one of the founders of The DisOrdinary Architecture Project, a group of disabled artists who critically examine the current understanding of disability as a technical or legal problem in architecture. Instead, the group advocates for architects to work from the perspective of the disabled body, which is accustomed to navigating the world in unexpected and creative ways. In her book, "Doing Disability Differently: An Alternative Handbook to Architecture" (2014), Boys demonstrates how the disabled body itself holds critical potential and promotes a new way of thinking about design that all architects should read.

2. The Sense of an Interior: Four Rooms and the Writers that Shaped Them (2004) by Diana Fuss
It has been many years since my first encounter with "The Sense of an Interior: Four Rooms and the Writers that Shaped Them" (2004) by Diana Fuss. In this book, Fuss examines the interiors of four writers with disabilities: Helen Keller, Sigmund Freud, Emily Dickinson, and Marcel Proust. A deep dive into their interiors provides a close and warm insight into their individual authorship, while Fuss offers a diverse portrayal of how we all sense our surroundings. My favorite chapter revolves around Helen Keller, the deaf-blind American activist, and how she used her hands to communicate and experience the world. The story of Keller developing rheumatism in her hands in old age, which made it challenging for her to read braille books, is something I continuously revisit in my work.

3. Site-Writing: the Architecture of Art Criticism (2010) by Jane Rendell
Jane Rendell's approach to how creative practice and academic work can complement each other is groundbreaking. Her books explore "Critical Spatial Practice" as something that exists between architecture, art, critical thinking, and social relations, drawing from critical and feminist theory. In her book "Site-Writing: the Architecture of Art Criticism" (2010), she examines a range of prepositions linguistically, materially, and spatially, resulting in an excellent textbook on the positions we assume when encountering art, architecture, and text.

Marte Eknæs has chosen:

1. Public Knowledge – Selected Writings (2019) by Michael Asher
Teaching was an integral part of artist Michael Asher's practice. It was in this role that I encountered him, and he had a fundamental impact on my art education. A question he constantly posed was, "Does the work really do what you say it does?" This remains relevant to me today and carries broader implications. Asher meticulously studied the context in which he worked, and through the various texts collected here—personal notes, letters, and artist statements—one gains a deep insight into his unique practice.

2. Duty Free Art (2017) by Hito Steyerl
In this book, Hito Steyerl describes connections between art, art institutions, tax evasion, multinational corporations, war, and digital technology. She employs the term "duty free" and its dual meaning: tax-free and free from responsibility. "Is it possible," she asks, "in this situation, to update the twentieth-century terminology of institutional critique? Or does one need to look for different models and prototypes?" These are central questions in my research project, where I study the constantly changing mechanisms in the relationship between art and the context in which it is produced, exhibited, and disseminated.

3. Medium Design – Knowing How to Work on the World (2021) by Keller Easterling
Easterling's concept of "Infrastructure Space," which she explores in her previous book, "Extrastatecraft," is a key concept in my analysis of urban space today. The follow-up book, "Medium Design," is a pragmatic text, almost like a self-help guide, on how to approach this complex and ever-changing realm. Chapter four is titled "Problems Can Be Assets," where Easterling shares strategies on how to break free from established loops and binaries and proposes new resistance strategies in the fight against global "super bugs."

Conversation partners:

As part of the ROM studio, Andersen and Eknæs have chosen "colleagues in dialogue." These dialogue partners will contribute to their projects in the short or long term, and they will collaborate during the period of April 12th to April 23rd.

Anna Ulrikke Andersen is collaborating with Levi Bergqvist, a graphic designer.

«Levi Bergqvist and I have had several conversations in the past about the role of graphic design as a link between film, books, and exhibitions. I wanted to further explore these discussions and inquire how the project ‘Pasientenes arkitekturhistorie: en ufullstendig guide’ could be developed with the input of a graphic designer. During the ROM studio period, we have brainstormed ideas about tactility, which is central to my films and the project's themes, and how it can be expressed through conscious choices of materials used in the book. We discussed the intended reader and the reading context, factors that could determine the materials, font size, and the concept of universal design.». 

Levi Bergqvist is a graphic designer currently working as a senior designer at Netlife. He has previously worked independently and also at Snøhetta and Dinamo Design. His primary focus has been on visual identities and projects within the cultural field, designing books, catalogs, posters, exhibitions, album covers, and title sequences.
Levi has had two solo exhibitions, curated shows, given lectures, and participated in panel discussions. He has received numerous awards for his work, including Visuelt, Årets vakreste Bøker, Gullblyanten, and the DOGA mark. He has also served as a jury member for Visuelt and Årets vakreste Bøker. Levi received his education from the School of Graphic Design (now known as Kristiania University College) and the London College of Communication. He is a regular guest lecturer, mentor, and assessor at Kristiania University College.

Marte Eknæs is collaborating with artist Ciara Phillips.

«For me, collaboration is an essential part of the working process, and during the ROM studio period, I have collaborated with artist Ciara Phillips. We continue our ongoing dialogue about the relationship between the artist and the institution, based on our own experiences of challenging institutional collaborations. We discuss what this type of relationship entails for us and for other artist colleagues we have invited into the conversation. We reflect on the institution and the artist's role in relation to each other and within society, asking: How can we best discuss negative experiences in a constructive manner?»

Ciara Phillips (b. 1976 in Ottawa, Canada) holds a Bachelor's degree in Fine Art from Queen's University in Kingston and a Master's degree in Fine Art from the Glasgow School of Art (2004). In recent years, she has had solo exhibitions at Kunsthall Stavanger (2019), V&A Dundee (2018), Benaki Museum (Athens, 2017), Western Front (Vancouver, 2016), CCA Derry-Londonderry (2016), Konsthall C (Stockholm, 2015), and Bergen Kunsthall (2014). Her recent group exhibitions include the 21st Sydney Biennale (2018), British Art Show 8 (Leeds, Edinburgh, Norwich, and Southampton, 2015–17), Generation: 25 Years of Contemporary Art in Scotland (Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, 2014), Pull Everything Out, including works by Corita Kent (Spike Island, Bristol, 2012), Who Decides? (Stadtgalerie Mannheim, 2012), and Zwischenraum: Space Between (Kunstverein Hamburg, 2010). Phillips has had artist residencies at Trykkeriet (Bergen), Headlands Center for the Arts (Marin County, California), St John's College (Oxford), and Drawing Room (London). She was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2014 for her exhibition Workshop (2010–) at The Showroom in London and received the Queen Sonja Print Award in 2020.

Anna Ulrikke Andersen is a Norwegian architectural historian and filmmaker, currently working as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford. She holds a PhD in Architecture from The Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, which resulted in the book "Christian Norberg-Schulz: An Architectural History through the Essay Film" (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2022). Since 2018, she has been working on the interdisciplinary project «Pasientens arkitekturhistorie – en ufullstendig guide», which explores how patients living with chronic illness experience architecture and place. Through digital and analog film, sculpture, and essays, she focuses on a group of Norwegian rheumatic patients who have undergone treatment in warm climates for many years, based on interviews and her own experiences as a rheumatic patient. The project aims to create a book that highlights how chronically ill Norwegians navigate their homes, treatment, and bodies marked by unpredictable illness trajectories. The project, which aims to give the disabled body a greater presence in architectural discourse, has been selected for the European architecture program Future Architecture 2021 and has received support for artistic manuscript development from the Norwegian Cultural Council. She was also awarded a fellowship at the Harvard Film Study Center in 2018/2019 through the Viken Film Center's scholarship program.

Andersens` webpage: annaulrikkeandersen.com
Instagram: @annaulrikkeandersen

Marte Eknæs’ practice is largely context-based, and she often works in interdisciplinary collaborations. She has exhibited at institutions such as Trondheim Kunstmuseum, Kunsthall Oslo, Kunstnerforbundet (Oslo), Kunstnernes Hus (Oslo), Bonner Kunstverein, Between Bridges (London), Kölnischer Kunstverein, Kunsthall Stavanger, and Efremidis (Berlin). She participated in the Munch Museum in Motion with "Open 24 Hours" (2016–18) alongside Brazilian artist Nicolau Vergueiro, and she produces video projects in collaboration with Swiss filmmaker Michael Amstad. Their work "People Mover" (2017) has been shown at UKS (Oslo), Grüner Salon / Volksbühne (Berlin), and The Kitchen (New York). Reflecting the ever-changing context in which she works, Eknæs launched the online and transdisciplinary project "formsofflexibility.space" (FOF) in 2019, which is continuously updated with her contributions and those of others. Since January 2021, she has been a Ph.D. fellow at Oslo National Academy of the Arts (Kunsthøgskolen i Oslo).

Eknæs` webpage: marteeknaes.info , formsofflexibility.space
Collaborative projects: m-a-n.site , afolder.studio
Instagram: @infomarte