Atelier Populaire Oslo

6th – 27th April 2012

Kunsthall Oslo is pleased to welcome you to
Atelier Populaire Oslo/Palestinian Camp – an artists’ initiative for a new refugee policy.
Public opening on Tuesday April 10th at 7pm

Atelier Populaire Oslo is a collective workshop for discussion, media and art production, research and activism related to the situation of ‘sans papiers’ and stateless refugees in Norway. The workshop will be open to the public throughout the period. There will be a series of daily lectures and events, for the complete program see www.atelierpopulaire.no.

The Oslo-based artist Andrea Lange has invited the members of the Palestinian refugees’ protest camp (Palestinerleir) at St. Jacob’s Church to Kunsthall Oslo. Here they will continue their activities, and become the joint hosts of the Atelier Populaire Oslo. More than fifty invited individuals will join the workshop. Atelier Populaire Oslo is a collaboration between Lange, Johanna Zwaig, Marius von der Fehr and members of the Palestinian camp in Oslo.

Andrea Lange is an Oslo-based artist. She has been artist-in-residence in the Palestinian camp in Oslo since December 2011. “Andrea Lange’s works are involved with the human drama of community. For her, issues of displacement, assimilation and difference revolve around the central point of communication, inclusion and understanding. In a range of profound projects over a number of years she has investigated the situation of confrontation, incarceration, and commemoration to reveal the complexities inherent in the idea of placing the self inside the system of the other.” (Juliana Engberg, writing in the catalogue of Signs of Life: The Melbourne International Biennial).

Johanna Zwaig and Marius von der Fehr have worked together since 2009, and currently run the open academy New Frontiers. They both have backgrounds in creating live art, performing in various theatres and art spaces in Norway and abroad, including Monty in Antwerp, Kaai Theater in Brussels, La Villette and La Bellevilloise in Paris, The Place in London and Black Box Theatre, Torshovteatret, Det norske teatret, BIT-Teatergarasjen and Henie Onstad Art Centre in Norway. von der Fehr has a background as an activist in student politics and has an MA from the Art Academy in Oslo. Johanna Zwaig has studied at the Ecole Internationale de Théâtre, Jacques Lecoq, in Paris.

Palestinerleir – the Palestinian refugees’ protest camp in Oslo
Since 5th April 2011, a group of 25 (now 23, since recent deportations) Palestinian refugees have been demonstrating for the right to a full and just treatment of their claims for political asylum. Their protest camp, next to St. Jacob’s Church (Jakob kirke) in Oslo, was created as a public demonstration against Norwegian asylum practice. Many international organisations support the assertion that it not is safe to repatriate Palestinian political refugees. The NOAS Anti Racist Centre, the UNHCR, Amnesty International, and the Red Cross have all criticised the Norwegian practice of refusing asylum to these stateless people. UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon has advised Norway to give Palestinian refugees leave to remain until the political situation is resolved. For more information see www.palestinerleir.no

Atelier Populaire Oslo is the second project in the series I don’t see the sea from where I live – The Oslo Project, which runs from March to October 2012. Kunsthall Oslo has invited artists to investigate the city of Oslo and present their results to the public over a seven-month series of exhibitions, talks and events. With a central focus on the material reality of the city and on the present day, the artists’ projects explore many sides of city life: aesthetics, ideology, architecture, economics, social relations, history, politics, conflict, everyday life and personal experience.