Saturday December 17th 2011, 15:00
Ellie Ga
The Fortunetellers, 2009-2011
Performance, 1 hour
Presented in collaboration with Deichman Library, at the Library’s lecture hall at Arne Garborgs plass
Free admission
The Fortunetellers is an autobiographical, narrative lecture, based on the five-months Ga spent aboard Tara, a research sailboat frozen into the ice near the North Pole.
The expedition was inspired by Nansen’s drift with Fram. Like Fram, Tara did not reach the North Pole, but collected valuable data for the study of climate change. Ellie Ga was the only artist invited to join the expedition. The Fortunetellers combines photographs, videos, sketches, maps, travel logs with live storytelling and recorded sound from the rituals of daily life in the Arctic night.
It was during an 18-month residency in the archives of the New York Explorers Club that Ellie Ga became fascinated with the Arctic. Ga was particularly interested in the incomplete reportages and documentations that reflect the memory of historical explorations.
Ellie Ga was born in 1976 in New York City and completed her MFA in 2004 at Hunter College. Her work has been exhibited in New York at Bureau and The Swiss Institute; Galerie du Jour, Paris and Hong Kong; Konstmuseum, Malmö, Sweden and Projekt 0047 in Oslo, Norway. She has performed at RISO-Museo dʼArte Contemporanea, Sicily; Institute for Cultural Inquiry, Berlin; Bétonsalon, Paris; and in New York City at PS1 and for the Edifying Series. Recent projects include a solo exhibition at Milliken Gallery, Stockholm and performances at The Kitchen, NY; Power Plant, Toronto and Espace Culturel Louis Vuitton, Paris. She is represented by Bureau, NY and is a founding member of Ugly Duckling Presse. Ellie Ga currently lives in England.