#Lille Lungegårdsvannet

[emblakaridotter]

[scotinnorwayphotosandtravel]

Over the course of the last two or three weeks, spring has well and truly sprung here in Bergen.  Far earlier by a good three weeks than last year’s arrival so it was nice to see the old place coming to life while we were still in April.

The following are a few shots taken around central Bergen on the last day of April while we were still enjoying some sunshine and the first burst of colour around the city…

Spring Time Over the course of the last two or three weeks, spring has well and truly sprung here in Bergen. 

[cannibalcow]

#swan #bergen #norway #feedingthebirds #winter #babyswan #city (at Lille Lungegårdsvannet) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bq4oWaRnAZy/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=wg5yqlu5xxrw

[nordicshoresphoto]

Lille Lungegårdsvannet

Bergen

Norway

[anny0395]

Hurra for 17. mai ❣️🇳🇴 (ved Lille Lungegårdsvannet) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bxk-K6EFmfTEvlgsHguVAJGwQeAjvZHzulbFlk0/?igshid=bywskdgkbobi

[vaakefjell]

Bergen by night (at Lille Lungegårdsvannet)

[katjaakahrs]

Lille Lungegårdsvannet Bergen, Norway

[pabinternationalfestival]

PAB Open Session/Common Ground/Kulturnatt

By Jennie Klein

PAB Open Session/Common Ground/Kulturnatt

Kulturnatt, or Culture Night, takes place in Bergen’s City Centre annually in mid-September. For this one night each year, all of the city’s cultural institutions stay open late, waive admission charges, and welcome new audiences, who have the opportunity to experience art, architecture, performances, and even yoga. PAB/Performance Art Bergen has always participated in Culture Night, performing at the Festplassen, a plaza area directly in front of KODE 2, part of the art museum complex, and the Bergen Kunsthall, a contemporary art museum. The plaza is bordered flanked by a small lake (Lille Lungegårdsvannet) and the street Christies Gate. In spite of the rainy weather, approximately 11 artists showed up to perform in the public square.

All interested artists are invited to participate in the open sessions run by PAB (Performance Art Bergen). This year “everyone” included a number of artists who came from outside of Norway, as Kulturnatt happened to be on the eve of the Bergen International Performance Festival History Will Be Kind To Me For I Intend to Perform It at the Kunstgarasjen September 15 and 16. History Will Be Kind to Me For I Intend to Perform It was organized by PALS (Performance Art Links). The curatorial premise behind History is to bring together artists and theorists from Africa and Nordic countries to use performance as a means to contest knowledges and deconstruct power imbalances. The Camaroonian artists Christian Etongo and Serge Olivier Fokoua joined the group on the plaza.

Kulturnatt also coincided with another initiative: the exchange between Thai and Norwegian artists It’s Personal. Many of the Thai artists opted to perform at the Festplassen including AOR Nopawan Sirivejkul, Sareena Sattapon, Jittima Pholsawek, and Pattree Chimnok. The final group that performed were members of PAB, including Anette Friedrich Johannessen, Kurt Johannessen, Jan-Egil Finne, Pavana Reid, Mari Sivertsen Norddahland, Hans Christian Van Nijerk, and Dany Devero. They were also joined by the Mexican dancer Lislot Frydenlund.

The Open Session begin with Reid seated on a small stepstool, wearing a colorful coat, blue gloves and a matching blue bucket hat. In honor of the festive night, Reid held 3 bells which she rang continuously throughout the evening. Directly opposite the Festplassen is a trolley stop. In spite of the rainy weather the plaza was crowded with people passing through, and Reid’s festive garb and bell ringing attracted attention. She was soon joined by Frydenlund, who began distributing small, battery operated votive candles, that she moved when necessary. Very quickly other artists moved into the space, performing subtle actions with minimal props. Kurt Johannesson, garbed in a black suit, performed with two large stones while lying down,  upon which he rested, held aloft, and eventually stood on. Anette Friedrich Johannessen, wearing a headlamp, dark clothing and white gloves, began unspooling white string around the plaza. AOR Nopowan, whose signature performance always include red yarn, linked two lampposts together with read and then white yarn, which she then leaned into causing the yarn to break and merge with Johannessens’s white string. Sattapon, toting a really large bag, eventually climbed inside, emerging with a long swath of pink chiffon, which she draped over herself like a veil before sitting on Reid’s abandoned stepstool. Echoing Nopowan’s red thread, Chimnok, garbed in a hooded black coat, carefully carried what appeared to be a bird’s nest wrapped in trailing red chiffon. Pholsawek trailed a rainbow of chiffon scarves which she eventually discarded in a colorful heap. Fokoua, balancing a broken bowl with an umbrella and holding a large fork, stood at attention, changing his position occasionally as the action eddied and flowed around him. He was helped by Etongo, whose umbrella was the one that possible ended up in Fokoua’s bowl.

Throughout the hour the artists moved around the Festplassen, coming together and moving apart, performing sometimes as individuals and sometimes as a collaborative team. As the action unfolded in a space that directly fronted the main art institutions in Bergen, it was striking how much these pieces were about drawing, mark making, mapping, and diagramming. Annete’s Johannessen’s strings, the trails of chiffon, Nopowan’s red threads all pointed to new ways of understanding and moving through and around the space of the Festplassen, which is advertised by City Centre Bergen as a public space available to rent for public occassions. This idea of mark making and mapping was reinforced by two of the artists: Norddahland, who placed small, surrealist inspired objects on the ground and traced around them with white chalk, and Finne, who rolled a large globe of chalk around the space, allowing it to make a line that was sometimes calculated and sometimes random. Meanwhile Van Nijerk, dressed in a light brown gabardine, unobtrusively echoed the actions of both viewers and performers, either mirroring or shadowing actions that might otherwise have gone unmarked.

It seems fitting that the spatial and psychic liminality of the space allowed for some chance events that were literally completly unplanned. The one event, which might or might not have been unplanned, happened in the blink of an eye as the performances were winding down. Suddenly a long elegant man was posing over Etongo’s upside-down, open umbrella, holding a deep plié while balancing on his toes. Lithe and elegant, and clad in black, he seemed like a dancer caught in mid transition.  Second, PAB member Dany Devero, who had flown in from Berlin for the event, found herself surrounded by a gagle of laughing Norwegian teenagers. Decked out in a tight dress, sky high pumps and a stylish coat, Devero had laid her drawing and placed a painting at the water’s edge when the teenagers converged. Devero was definitely a new and different experience for these young people, but rather than turn away they decided to stay, doing their best to help Devero mount a rickety table, take off her dress (and reveal a soft sculpture strapped over her pubic area) and attempt to set fire to a flag (which didn’t seem to be successful in the wet weather). The teenagers also took pictures with Devero, who graciously posed with them.

The performances took place against a background of choral singing, a simultaneous Kulturnatt event taking place at the pavillion across the street. They were overseen by the statue of Christian Michelsen, the first prime minister of independent Norway, standing tall on an impossibly high base with a live pigeon perched on his head. All in all, Open Session was quite lovely.

[dominik-flatten]

[annenyberg]

Mount Ulriken that is situated right behind our house, seen from Festplassen in the middle of the city #festplassen #Ulriken #Bergen #bergen_by #lillelundgårdsvann (ved Lille Lungegårdsvannet)

[myfamilyovertheyears]

på Lille Lungegårdsvannet

[photostunt]

When in Bergen #bergen #byenmellomdesyvfjell (ved Lille Lungegårdsvannet)

[tunliweb]

Bergen, Norway this afternoon. #bergen @visitbergen (at Lille Lungegårdsvannet)

[xaxier]

Lake #norge #scandinavia #europe #norway #norwegen #norvege #noruega #mittnorge #adventures #touristspot #destination #travel #fjordnorway #visitnorway #thebestofscandinavia #norskefototalenter #ig_europa #norden #nordnes #bergen #visitbergen #bergencity #cityphotography #travel #tourist #trip #traveller (en Lille Lungegårdsvannet)

[anny0395]

Gratulerer med dagen Norge 🇳🇴❣️ (ved Lille Lungegårdsvannet) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bxk82daFy47qEwii_B6HXtVctBH5lfoZhXmwaY0/?igshid=r2r46d09rt4a

[vaakefjell]

#bergen (at Lille Lungegårdsvannet)