anne-marte eidseth rygh

SCHEDULE 2008
1) 25th March – 3rd of April: A 10-day workshop/research
2) 12th – 14th of June: A 5 days of showing of the work presented in Pedersgata and Tou Scene.
3) 30th May 2009: publishing of catalouge and documentation 

Curators: Anne-Marte Eidseth Rygh and Johanna Tuukkanen
Producer: Geir Lindahl . Contact geir@touscene.com

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Artists participate in the TW1 project:

Mariela Limerutti (Argentina) makes drawings of the facades of selected houses of Pedersgata to then engrave these on the ground and pathway in front of the houses. The work is related to the tradition in some cultures where drawings in front of houses are believed to function as a protection of the home. The artist would like to achieve cultural reflection by the works’ permanence, and point out the changing facades recordable in future. 

”It is my intention to make visible that small step between the reality of a city and the idea of it, where the imagination can be developed. The engraving technique is an aesthetic decision not only to function as an integration with the design of the blocks on the sidewalks but also to give the drawings a long lasting life, perhaps longer than the life of the houses that they are representing. Time and duration are concepts that will relate the past with the future of the houses.”

Christian Gauss and Moritz Groba (Germany) are architects that work and live in Stavanger. Both first moved into Pedersgata when they arrived to the city. In TW1 they will design, build and place 4 sculptures at the end of Pedersgata, between the bridge and the silos. The 4 metres high, brightly painted, abstract, yet figurative sculptures point out specific sites and structures. 

”Just like us or people moving to Stavanger, the sculptures are alien to that very place. By entering the New Neighbour sculpture, you will have the possibility to look at the city from ‘his’ perspective.” The architects are fascinated by the old tradition of ”dugnad” and want to test the local ”dugnadsånd” (spirit of working together in the community) by inviting residents to help building and welcome the new neighbours in the beginning of June. The project aims to provoke curiosity, discussion and interaction.

Annie Sprinkle and Elizabeth Stephens (USA) are an artist couple committed to doing collaborative art projects that explore, generate and celebrate love. Annie is also known as the prostitute and porn star who became a certified sexologist with a Ph.D. and an internationally known theater and performance artist. Elizabeth Stephens is a provocative multi-media artist, interventionist, and a professor of art at University of California. 

Sprinkle and Stephens will offer a “Free Sidewalk Sex Clinic” on the sidewalk in front of the love shop at Pedersgata. Passers by can ask absolutely any questions they have about sex, relationship, fetishes, gender, and more, to five sex experts in white lab coats, absolutely free. The professional sexologists can also offer tips on how to increase pleasure, have bigger and better orgasms, and simply be a better lover.

Stephens and Sprinkle will also offer *The* “Lover’s Tour of Pedersgata”: Learn the Secret Romantic History and see its Hidden Erotic Worlds. “Experience the Pedersgata like you never have before. You’ll feel the area’s most erogenous zones, view a hidden pornography museum, see the spot where a prostitute became millionaire, go to the magical place where orgasms occur, view the street’s sexiest architectural details. The area of Pedersgata was once referred to as “the heat” and Annie and Beth’s tour will be aiming to turn that heat on again. Annie and Beth are representing a compassionate and humorous take on a subject that is of local controversy. We are guessing some heads will turn but hoping some prejudices might be desolved. Singles, couples, and groups welcome. Dress warmly and wear your walking shoes.”

Beth and Annie will also share their “Adventures of the Love Art Laboratory”, a performative lecture/presentation and slide show about their lives and work. In the beer halls of Tou Scene.

Kjetil Røed (Norway) is a critic and writer with a MA in literature, and a special interest in relational aesthetics. ”The relational aesthetic approach to art means to evaluate an art work from the social relations it represents, produces or suggests. You evaluate the human relation and social context rather then an independent and private space or site,” Røed says. He is observing, participating and documenting the process of TW1, setting the project in context and making interviews with all participating artists. 

His role is a mix of the critic and producer. ”I join in the process until its closure and participate actively in present – and yet at the same time develop thoughts on how the work will turn out. It’s a healthy thing for a critic to participate in the process, to see the art work grow from the inside,” he says. You can read his texts on web in June, and in August the material will also be available in a catalogue.

Simona Ferrari, Trond Kasper Mikkelsen and Sigrun Vik Olsen, (Italy, Norway). An architect and two visual artists have founded the group SVOP/T (2006) working primarily with interventions that modify the experience of spaces and cityscapes. Their main project for TW1 is about transportation, movement and visibility. They have created a concept for a mobile waiting place for the pedicab that will transport people between Nytorget and Tou Scene. The mobile waiting place will be sold in a shop along the path, and by carrying this object the clients signalize to the pedicab driver that they would like a ride. At the same time, the object creates an unpredictable choreography that continuously changes the visual image of Pedersgata. 

SVOP/T will also present a business plan for the pedicab in order to attract anyone who might be interested in making this a permanent service. As a window installation, they present their idea of an upside down lawn at the flip side of the city bridge. The idea will be offered on sale for investors and others.

Elaine Kordys (UK). Her work often responds to sites and community. She works within Live Art using performance, film and installation. Recently her work has been considering the concept of ’saving’ in physical, environmental and spiritual terms. In TW1 she will be making walks in Pedersgata and siting an action at Badedammen. She has also Night Ravens (people walking the streets at night to protect their local community) and local local life guards to walk the the streets in and around Pedersgata. 

Since being in Stavanger she has made contact with a number of people living in the street. “I have been drawn by the warmth and support of the residents. Especially in what seems to be challenging times due to the recent rapes and the unstable future of some buildings. The area is under both physical and environmental threat, the spirit however remains hopeful”.

SEEDS These artists have been given SEEDS grants and are invited by the TW1 project.
They all have invited a collaborator for their project.

Mona Orstad Hansen (visual artist, Stavanger) and Torunn Larsen (art historian, Stavanger) present ”Grassroots”, an uto-political art project at Nytorget. The aim is to mobilize environmentally committed people in the city council of Stavanger to join in an action for a change of course and priority(,) and (as well as) basic values in relation to our environment. Nytorget is currently an area of transformation. The project wants to squat the site and make it a car free zone for a limited time period. The ambition is to lay grass and plant trees in such a wide range that it will obstruct any entrance with a car. Historical inspiration: 7000 oaks, Joseph Beuys.

Helge Olav Øksendal (musician, Stavanger) and Ingouf Vincent (musician, Frankrike) make a composition made for the route from Centre of town to Tou Scene. The artists will make sound recordings in the area, sample and process the material and then re-install the composition in a new context. The composition will be played live in the old public toilets at Nytorget. By re-opening this space the artists would like to point at the potential in the existing architecture and make visible the hidden elements of the Jugend wall and its unused and empty internal spaces. The residents of Pedersgata are also invited to play the composition on a cd from their home stereos to create an extended soundscape in Pedersgata.

Nils Thomas Økland (visual artist, Sandnes) and Rune Aase (engineer, Sandnes)
”The creative act” is a starting point where the artist and engineer approach the work with a mutual wish to explore utopia. They are both fascinated by the science fiction genre, which will most likely be present and visible in the project aesthetics. The collaboration explores the meeting between the professions of ”visual art” and ”engineering”, and this cross-section will serve as inspiration for the mobile sculptures which will be transported and re-installed at various sites in Pedersgata.