The Curatorial Roundtable: Kjersti Solbakken (Lofoten, Norway)

The Curatorial Roundtable, an international forum for curators and institutional leaders to discuss formative and current projects, is hosted by Steven Henry Madoff, Founding Chair of the MA Curatorial Practice at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.

Curated by Kjersti Solbakken and titled SPARKS, Lofoten International Art Festival – LIAF 2024 was inspired by the history of the Lofoten Line: one of the world's first experiments in wireless telegraphic communication, which was developed in Lofoten, Norway, in the nineteenth century. The festival constituted a vibrant network of temporary connections, featuring a large exhibition spread across a number of venues alongside a program of lectures and readings, performances, concerts, workshops, and talks in dialogue with a wide range of collaborators and cross-institutional partnerships. Solbakken will present her work on the festival and reflect on how curating LIAF 2024 consisted of archival approaches as well as infrastructural experiments, attempting to discover new ways to write at a distance or signal from a far.

Kjersti Solbakken is a curator, writer, and institutional leader based in Bergen, Norway. Solbakken recently assumed the role of director at Bergen Kunsthall, a center for contemporary art presenting a vibrant program of exhibitions, events, and learning activities, established in 1839. She is the curator of Lofoten International Art Festival (LIAF) 2024, the longest-running art biennial in Scandinavia, presenting works by local and international artists in a location-conscious context. Inspired by the history of the Lofoten Line, one of the world’s first experiments in wireless telegraphic communication, developed in Lofoten in the 19th century, the festival constitutes a vibrant network of temporary connections, featuring a large exhibition spread across multiple venues alongside a program of lectures and readings, performances, concerts, workshops, and talks in dialogue with a wide range of collaborators and cross-institutional partnerships.

Solbakken previously held the position of director at Kunstnerforbundet, one of Scandinavia’s oldest artist-run exhibition spaces, where she oversaw the establishment of Atelier Kunstnerforbundet, a studio collective and network of art enthusiasts focused on engaging the public in the center of Oslo. Other engagements include roles as director of institutions such as Galleri Format and Fotogalleriet in Oslo, and she has curated exhibitions for institutions such as Hordaland Kunstsenter and the Astrup Fearnley Museum. As an active initiator in the self-organized field, she has contributed to the establishment of platforms such as Feil forlag and the project space Holodeck and was, for a period, involved in Tekstallianse, a Nordic festival for micro-publishing and printed matter. She is part of KORO’s curatorial committee LES 2023-2024, a former board member of UKS—Young Artists Society and The Norwegian Association of Curators. Since 2023, she has been an OCA jury member. In 2022, she was granted a curator residency at the International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) through OCA. She is co-editor of the forthcoming issue of the journal Metode: Currents – Regenerating Pasts for the Not Yet.

Host or Publisher MA Curatorial Practice at the School of Visual Arts