Marianne Hultman

CURATING & COLLABS

EDITING & WRITING

COLLAB

Island Eye Island Ear, Lofoten 2024
Included in Lofoten International Art Festival 2024

North Norwegian Art Centre
20.09–20.10.24

Project curated by Marianne Hultman and Kjersti Solbakken

In 2023, a cross-continental collaboration was launched between partners in Japan, the USA, Sweden, and Denmark under the title Island Eye Island Ear, Lofoten 2024. The project was developed in close dialogue with Kjersti Solbakken, curator of the Lofoten International Art Festival – LIAF 2024.

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COLLAB
Mimi Gross & Inger Johanne Grytting
On Art and Friendship

North Norwegian Art Centre
03.06–03.09.23

Curated by Marianne Hultman and Torill Østby Haaland

At first glance, the artistic practices of Inger Johanne Grytting (b. 1949, Svolvær) and Mimi Gross (b. 1940, New York) appear to stand in contrast. Grytting’s minimalist drawings and paintings are marked by subtle color and meditative repetition, while Gross’s work bursts with expressive color, figuration, and dynamic depictions of people and landscapes. Yet beneath these surface differences lies a deep artistic kinship—rooted in a decades-long friendship and shared creative community in New York.

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COLLAB
Noa Eshkol 
Rules Theory & Passion 

Yael Bartana, Sharon Lockhart and Omer Krieger

Oslo Kunstforening
27.08–07.11.2021

Norrköping Art Museum
 26.03–02.10.2022

Curated by Marianne Hultman and Helena Scragg. Program curator Lizzie Oved Scheja.

In 2021 and 2022, Oslo Kunstforening, Norrköping Art Museum, and Jewish Culture in Sweden came together to present a retrospective exhibition of dancer, choreographer, artist, teacher, and researcher Noa Eshkol (1924–2007).

Titled Noa Eshkol: Rules, Theory & Passion, the exhibition also featured works by contemporary artists inspired by Eshkol’s practice: Yael Bartana, Omer Krieger, and Sharon Lockhart.

The exhibition was developed in close collaboration with neugerriemschneider gallery in Berlin—representing both Eshkol and Lockhart—and The Noa Eshkol Foundation for Movement Notation in Holon, Israel.

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COLLAB
Ursula Reuter Christiansen
Jeg er mine billeder—mine billeder er mig

Kristiansand Kunsthall
23.10—30.12.21

Oslo Kunstforening
29.01—27.03.22

Produced by Oslo Kunstforening and Kristiansand Kunsthall, in close collaboration with visual artist Thorbjørn Reuter Christiansen, her youngest son.

Ursula Reuter Christiansen is a sculptor and painter primarily active in Denmark. A prominent figure in the feminist movement of the 1970s, her work remains deeply rooted in political engagement. The female figure is central to her practice, whether expressed through painting, poetry, film, or sculpture.

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COLLAB
Bouchra Khalili
The Nordic Chapter

Oslo kunstforening and Fotogalleriet
13.08–27.09.20

Produced by Oslo Kunstforening, Fotogalleriet and TrAP

Fotogalleriet, Oslo Kunstforening and TrAP are pleased to present a multi-site program of the internationally renowned artist Bouchra Khalili, the result of a collaboration spanning several years. The Nordic Chapter is Khalili’s first solo exhibition in Norway.

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The Past is Present

Sri Ananda Acharya, Kari Christensen, Devayani Krishna, Kanwal Krishna, Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam, Rune Schytte

Mumbai Art Room, India
 10.10–21.12.19

The Past is Present is a montage where historical and contemporary narratives interconnect within the exhibition space. The exhibition presents personal narratives that when placed next to one another create a storyline. The Himalayas are a mutual ground in all narratives.

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COLLAB
Rona Yefman
The Strongest Girl in the World

Oslo Kunstforening
24.05–06.10.19

Collaboration with Fotobokfestival Oslo 2019, curated by Christina Leithe Hansen and Ultima Oslo Contemporary Music Festival

The Strongest Girl in the World is the first Scandinavian solo exhibition of artist Rona Yefman. She works in photography, video and performance exploring identity through a range of human encounters and experiences. The exhibition juxtaposes work from two of Yefman’s iconic series from the last decades.

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Martin White & Matthew Berka
Is this OK?

Oslo Kunstforening
15.02–31.03.19

Artistic labour is usually dislocated from the exhibition format, and is therefore also dislocated from the public. Cultural labour on an institutional level, that is the labour of the people working at institutions, is similarly dislocated and invisible from the public's view. Is this OK? relocates multiple levels of artistic labour into the exhibition format.

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COLLAB
Beirut, Beyrut, Bayrut, Beyrouth, Beyrout 

Mounira Al Solh, Monira Al Qadiri, Ziad Antar, Ali Cherri, Ahmad Ghossein, Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, Lamia Joreige, Mazen Kerbaj, Stéphanie Saadé, Lucien Samaha, Helle Siljeholm, Suha Traboulsi, Raed Yassin and Akram Zaatari.

Oslo Kunstforening
 15.03–10.06.2018

Ystads konstmuseum,
08.09.18–09.01.19

Listasafn Íslands, Iceland
 08.0–31.03.19

Curated by Marianne Hultman and Ýrr Jónasdóttir with Birta Guðjónsdóttir

Collaboration with Ultima Oslo Contemporary Music Festival and Cinemateket, Oslo

In the exhibition Beirut, Beyrut, Beyrouth, Beyrout, the North meets the Middle East. The exhibition highlights and queries a socio-politically complex society and its history, with sharpness, gravity, heartache and humour. The title points to the cultural diversity that Lebanon, and the Middle East as a whole, represent—marked by long traditions of being a multicultural and multilingual region.

In recent years, the art world as a whole has developed a fascination for the Beirut art scene. This is due in part to the sheer concentration of talent, but also to the seduction of a scene that is multi-generational, supportive, enthusiastic, generous, expansive and truly international. Many of the artists are multilingual and possess double citizenships. We dare to characterize this sense of unity as one of a kind. The art scene is experienced as—at least from the outside—an inclusive one.

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COLLAB
The Blue Hour 

Martin Gustavsson, Gavin Jantjes, Toril Johannessen, Tori Wrånes, Ayodeji Adewale Tunmise, Sanusi Taofik Ayomide and Tone Kittelsen

Guest curator Dak’Art Biennale 2018
 03.05–02.06.18

In 2018, chief curator Simon Njami of the 13th Dak’Art Biennale invited five guest curators—Marianne Hultman, Marisol Rodríguez, Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, Alya Sebti, and Cosmin Costinas—to contribute exhibitions to the Biennale of Contemporary African Art in Dakar, Senegal. Under the biennale’s overarching theme, The Red Hour, one of the curated contributions, titled The Blue Hour, referenced the Swedish painter Eugène Jansson and featured works by Martin Gustavsson, Gavin Jantjes, Toril Johannessen, Tori Wrånes, Ayodeji Adewale Tunmise, Sanusi Taofik Ayomide, and Tone Kittelsen.

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Anawana Haloba
Conversations with Stitched-up Lips 

Oslo Kunstforening
23.08–30.09.18

Anawana Haloba's work explores communities' contingency within historical, cultural and architectural contexts. She is currently a Phd Fellow through the Artistic Research Fellowship Programme (PKU) at the Department of Fine Art, University of Bergen. Her research, titled Subtle Encounters, looks at women's roles in independence movements and decolonialization in Africa and the Caribbean. The exhibition Conversations with Stitched-up Lips constitutes a component in Haloba’s research.

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Gavin Jantjes
The Exogenic Series (Aqua)

Oslo Kunstforening
05.10–05.11.17

COLLAB
Ukichiro Nakaya
Letters Sent from Heaven

Oslo Kunstforening
26.08.17–24.09.17

a•form
Fujiko Nakaya, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Min Tanaka, Shiro Takatani

Roof terrasse of the building site of the new national museum
09–10.09.2017

Letters Sent from Heaven
Seminar at Mellomstasjonen, National Museum Oslo
09.09.2017

Fujiko Nakaya
Ekebergparken 10.0–-30.10.2017

Fujiko Nakaya
Pathfinder #18700 Oslo—Blindern
Ekebergparken Inauguration of permanent sculpture
25.04.2018

Collaboration with Statsbygg, the National Museum, Ultima, Dansens Hus, Ekebergparken, and the Biodynamic Association

In 2017, Oslo Kunstforening initiated a collaboration with Statsbygg, the National Museum, Ultima, Dansens Hus, Ekebergparken, and the Biodynamic Association with Japanese artist Fujiko Nakaya. A series of interconnected works and events were presented during August and September, centered around the exhibition “Letters Sent from Heaven,” featuring experimental Japanese physicist Ukichiro Nakaya’s photographs of snow crystals and electrostatic discharges.

Fujiko Nakaya, daughter of Ukichiro Nakaya, created two of her site-specific fog sculptures—one on the rooftop terrace of the new National Museum construction site, and the other in Ekebergparken. Composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, dancer Min Tanaka, artist and lighting designer Shiro Takatani, and Fujiko Nakaya performed a live piece combining fog, light, music, and dance.

A seminar focusing on the concept of the Anthropocene was also part of the collaboration, featuring artist and critic Kenjiro Okazaki, climate historians Peder Anker and Sverker Sörlin, curator and artistic director of Oslo Kunstforening Marianne Hultman, and agronomist and director of the Biodynamic Association Dag Blakkisrud. In 2018, Fujiko Nakaya’s “Pathfinder #18700 Oslo” became part of Ekebergparken’s permanent sculpture collection.

A book documenting the collaboration was published by OK BOOK in 2022.

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Camille Norment
DRAWING and SCULPTURE

Oslo Kunstforening
04.05–25.06.17

Camille Norment's oeuvre moves in the borderland between visual arts, sound and music. She often tackles various social phenomena such as cases of sonic and social dissonance, and the power of sound over body, mind and society.

Dissonance is typically thought of as the opposite of consonance, the opposite of harmony. Another way of looking at dissonance and consonance is in the binary of disagreement and agreement. The tension that comes out of dissonance has been used by writers, composers and artists to express a challenge, discomfort or emotions that are more complex and ambiguous. Dissonance can be described as an unresolved space, a state of instability, constantly shifting, and open for new possibilities. In contrast, agreement/harmony is a state of stability, rest and closure.

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Lina Selander
Repeat After Me

Oslo Kunstforening 
19.10–26.02.17

Lina Selander is one of Sweden's most groundbreaking moving image artists. Her films and installations are often based on historical breakpoints—a liminal space in which a system or a physical space has collapsed and something new is taking shape; the transition from analogue image making to digital, the collapse of political or economic systems. Each work consists of a pictorial world woven from a mix of historical and fictional observations.

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Sandra Mujinga
Real Friends

Oslo Kunstforening
14.10–13.11.16

The self-image, which we constantly shape and redefine, has been a reoccurring theme for Mujinga. The new series of video and photographic works in Real Friends, addresses the performative aspect of self-representation, in addition to the isolation it can inspire.

As previously seen, the artist uses material gathered from her own traveling and combines it with blue screen; using mobile-apps and her iPhone in addition to filming with a HD camera. This time around it is the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mujinga’s own place of birth, that becomes focal.

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Magnus Wallin
Seven Monochromes and a Smiley

Oslo Kunstforening
25.08–25.09.16

Seven Monochromes and a Smiley is a series of object based works in which the human body is not only represented but included in a fragmented, anatomical manner. Blood powder constitutes the main material in the monochromatic series Are you in pain... Not anymore, while Whiteboard and Smiley are comprised of bone and skeleton.

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COLLAB

Nordic Delights

Dejan Antonijević, Nermin Duraković, Michelle Eistrup, Behzad Farazollahi, Anawana Haloba, Sasha Huber, Henrik Lund Jørgensen, Jane Jin Kaisen, Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen, Bita Razavi, Bella Rune, Adolfo Vera, Nita Vera, Carla Zaccagnini.

Curators: Marianne Hultman, Kristine Kern, Anna-Kaisa Rastenberger.

Oslo Kunstforening
22.04–12.06.16

Fotografisk Center, København
14.01–05.03.17

The Finnish Museum of Photography, Helsinki
17.05–13.08.17

Kalmar konstmuseum, Sweden
01.10–20.11.16

In 2016, Oslo Kunstforening was one of the initiators of the group exhibition “Nordic Delights,” produced in collaboration with Fotografisk Center in Copenhagen and the Finnish Museum of Photography. In addition to Denmark, Finland, and Norway, the exhibition was also shown in Sweden at Kalmar Art Museum.

An exhibition organized in collaboration between Oslo Kunstforening, Fotografisk Center, Copenhagen, The Finnish Museum of Photography, Helsinki and Kalmar Konstmuseum, Sweden.

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Inger Johanne Grytting
Nye arbeider

Oslo Kunstforening
10.03–10.04.16

The line is the main component in Inger Grytting’s drawings and paintings. Drawn with pencil or brush it often follows a column format pattern; each work begins in the upper left corner, proceeds down and resumes in the next column.

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Noa Eshkol: Rules, Theory & Passion

Published by Judisk kultur i Sverige
ISBN 978-91-9879-000-9

From dance, notation systems and collaborative processes to her large-scale wall carpets made from offcuts and rags. ”Rules, Theory & Passion” surveys Noa Eshkol's life and work.

Editors: Lizzie Oved Scheja, Marianne Hultman, Helena Scragg, Helena Persson
Essay by Marianne Hutlaman, Helena Scragg
Conversations with Yael Bartana, Sharon Lockhart and Omer Krieger by Camilla Larsson, Sara Arrhenius
Preface by Lizzie Oved Scheja, Marianne Hultman, Helena Persson
Design: Waters Löwenhielm

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Letters Sent from Heaven
Frozen and Vaporized Water: Ukichiro Nakaya and Fujiko Nakaya’s Science and Art

Published by OK BOOK
ISBN: 978-82-7531-011-6

"Snow crystals are letters sent from heaven"
—Ukichiro Nakaya

Letters Sent from Heaven is based on a traveling exhibition about the Japanese experimental physicist Ukichiro Nakaya (1900–1962). The traveling exhibition featured photographs of snow crystals, electrostatic discharges, and films, which were shown in 2016 and 2017 at Riga Art Space, KTH R1 Energy Stage in Stockholm, and Oslo Kunstforening. The exhibition was accompanied by a program of workshops, lectures, and seminars. When the exhibition came to Oslo, a series of interconnected works and events were produced around the city, featuring Fujiko Nakaya, artist and daughter of Ukichiro Nakaya, composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, dancer and choreographer Min Tanaka, and artist Shiro Takatani.

Editors: Jonatan Habib Engqvist, Marianne Hultman
Contributors: Peder Anker, Ann-Marie Duguet, Jonatan Habib Engqvist, Marianne Hultman, Viktors Kravčenko, Kenjiro Okazaki, Reiko Setsuda, Sverker Sörlin, Martin White
Proofreadnng: Liam Sprod
Language: English
Design: Research and Development

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Eline McGeorge
As Spaces Fold, Companions Meet

Published by OK BOOK 2020
ISBN 978-82-7531-010-9

In As Spaces Fold, Companions Meet folds are a visual and thematic motif. The exhibition also refers to a science fiction inspired interpretation of folded space, which allows fictional and actual characters to meet and be cast into new constellations across time and space. Alienation and hybridisation are recurring traits of the characters populating these works.

Eline McGeorge’s work spans abstraction, concrete references and documentary. Democratic problems, environmental issues, feminist legacy and science fic- tion comprise McGeorge’s oeuvre. These themes are brought together through drawing; animation; collage; weaving and artist books; and a particular interest in folds; pixels and weaving. This exhibition brought together works from the period 2003–2015.

Editor and writer: Marianne Hultman
Photo: Christina Leithe Hansen
Translation: Sunniva Vik
Proofreading: Ingrid Vold Bjørkamo, Lona Hansen, Martin White
Language: English and Norwegian
Design: Research and Development

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Gavin Jantjes
The Exogenic Series (Aqua)

Published by OK BOOK
ISBN 978-82-7531-011-6

In Oslo as well as abroad, Gavin Jantjes is known to most as the former senior curator for international art at the National Museum in Oslo or the former artistic director of Henie Onstad Kunstsenter. Jantjes has been a key opinion former and contributor to the contemporary art scene in Norway. His love for painting made him curate An Appetite for Painting, his final exhibition for the National Museum in 2014. The research undertaken for this exhibition paved the way for his return to the studio and the daily practice of painting.

Painting is rapidly returning to the arenas of cultural discourse and exhibition practice. It is timely that non-figurative painting can once again occupy public attention not through its references or depictions, but through our sensory reading of a painted surface. The works function as catalysts for ideas and reminiscences about place, the environment and the broad array of things formed on the surface of the earth.

Editor: Marianne Hultman and Martin White
Texts by Marianne Hultman, Paul Regrette, Gavin Jantjes
Language: English and Norwegian
Design: Research and Development
Photo: Christina Leithe Hansen

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Kunsthallene i Norge
Nanna Løkka

Published by OK BOOK 2018
ISBN 978-82-7531-006-2

In what ways will the new museum infrastructure, currently being built in Oslo, change the city’s cultural scene? Will funding from the City of Oslo be (re)directed towards overhead and operational costs for these institutions at the expense of small and medium-sized art institutions? Large-scale institutions will certainly increase the visibility of contemporary art in Oslo, but will they contribute to nurturing a thriving art scene in the city? An art plan for the City of Oslo is currently in the making, and should ensure that the conditions for art production are safeguarded and that the small to medium-sized institutions are supported in order to provide ambitious and critical contemporary art for the city’s inhabitants. Over the last few years, several art organizations in Oslo have come together as part of Curator Jour Fixe to ensure that the artist’s role and place within this rapidly developing city are secured through access to studios, workshops, and spaces for public display.

Editor: Marianne Hultman
Writer: Nanna Løkka, Telemarksforsking
Proofreadning: Ingrid Vold Bjørkamo
Language: Norwegian
Design: Research and Development

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I skvis
Om mellomsjiktet i kunstbyen Oslo

Published by OK BOOK 2018
ISBN 978-82-7531-006-5

In what ways will the new museum infrastructure, currently being built in Oslo, change the city’s cultural scene? Will funding from the City of Oslo be (re)directed towards overhead and operational costs for these institutions at the expense of small and medium-sized art institutions? Large-scale institutions will certainly increase the visibility of contemporary art in Oslo, but will they contribute to nurturing a thriving art scene in the city? An art plan for the City of Oslo is currently in the making, and should ensure that the conditions for art production are safeguarded and that the small to medium-sized institutions are supported in order to provide ambitious and critical contemporary art for the city’s inhabitants. Over the last few years, several art organizations in Oslo have come together as part of Curator Jour Fixe to ensure that the artist’s role and place within this rapidly developing city are secured through access to studios, workshops, and spaces for public display.

Editor: Marianne Hultman
Writers: Emil Flatø, Monica Holmen, Ruben Steinum, Runa Carlsen
Language: Norwegian
Design: Research and Development

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Agencies of Art - A report on the situation of small and medium-sized art centers in Denmark, Norway and Sweden

Published by OK BOOK 2018
ISBN 978-82-7531-004-8

Art is always changing, and institutions should be able to adapt to the conditions of artistic production. We believe that the small or midsize art centre plays an important role in its capacity to adapt and transform according to what artists are doing, while also providing stability and continuity. Thus, these institutions play a central part in what has been termed the ‘ecology’ of contemporary art. Since this crucial stability and continuity is challenged by current political decisions, this report is a timely tool for reflecting on the possible agency of art and its institutions

The symposium The Agencies of Art and this report both received support from Nordic Culture Point and Arts Council Norway. The report is published with the support from The Relief Fund for Visual Artists (Bildende Kunstneres Hjelpefond).

Editor: Madeline Coleman
Contributors: Jonatan Habib Engqvist, Nina Möntmann
Coordination: Hanna Nordell, Tensta konsthall
Photo: Jan Khür
Language: Norwegian
Design: Research and Development

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Stop Making Sense

Published by Oslo Kunstforening 2010
ISBN 978-82-7531-010-9

The exhibition Stop Making Sense presents nine artists who live and work in Israel and who all have backgrounds from Europe, the Maghreb, the Middle East and Palestine (Israel before 1948).

Participating artists: David Adika, Scandar Copti, Rabih Boukhary, Hanna Farah-Kufr Birim, Jumana Manna, Hila Lulu Lin, Nira Pereg, Roee Rosen, Dafna Shalom.

Editor: Marianne Hultman
Contributors: Tal Ben Zvi, Simon Njami, Ella Shohat, Irit Rogoff and Marianne Hultman
Language: English, Norwegian , French, Hebrew
Design: Research and Development

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Teknologi för livet:
Om Experiments in Art and Technology

Published by Schultz Förlag AB 2004
ISBN 978-91-8737-039-7

Along with 20th-century Paris, 1960s New York was the most important art scene of the 20th century. The boundaries between art forms dissolved and collaboration arose between artists, dancers, poets, composers and filmmakers. The interest in taking part in and exploiting the new technical innovations became a movement and in the middle of this vortex was the Swedish electronics engineer Billy Klüver. More and more artists became interested in taking part in the new technology and the organization Experiments in Art and Technology was formed to help mediate the contact between technology, industry and art. In the book we meet Billy Klüver in his own words and in texts by a number of Swedish and foreign artists and art historians.

Editor and writer: Barbro Schultz Lundestam
Contributors: Marianne Hultman, Billy Klüver, Julie Martin
Language: Swedish
Design: REALA

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MARIANNE HULTMAN

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