Anna Suwalowska from Poland, makes
paintings, drawings, photography, collage and installations.
In Messen she was mainly working on her dream project. She asked the local people, to write down their dreams and post them in the dreambox in the library. She would use the dreams as inspiration, for her drawings and show the result at her presentation in Messen.
www.annasuwalowska.com
the presentation in Messen
Giovanni Calabrese from Italy is a painter and works with architecture, but above all he is a social artist!
He organized a pasta-on-the-fire-afternoon, after italien tradition, and invited the whole village, to join and have a taste.
Giovanni and Snowy (resident from Hong Kong) working hard to make dinner for the villagers.
lookingRIGHTandlookingLEFT
atelieratelier
messen is wonderful…
it is a beautiful, silence and inspiring place.
my working place was absolutly great.
I had a very concentrated and lovely time.
highly recommended
elisabeth altenburg (austria)
guestartist in Messen, november 2013
“In countries where the light has another color
faces along the street at dusk
can turn to pearls in a slow indigo sea…”
by Norwegian Poet Rolf Jacobsen
Arriving in Ålvik late on our first night I encountered “another color”. Although tired after the journey I was sleepless with excitement, anticipation and eagerness to experience what Kunstnarhuset Messen had to offer.
I gazed out the window into blue…blueness…blueancholy…another color like one I had never seen before. The still waters of the Hardangerfjord were saturated with a true midnight blue…a chord of music played on the eye. I took a photo.
I thought this color was an imagined one and that one of my favourite paintings ‘Winter Night in Rondane’ by Harald Sohlberg was a beautiful but make-believe creation. The next day the evidence on my camera proved I was so wrong! Later in my time in Norway I was also fortunate enough to see the original Sohlberg work in Oslo and stand in awe before it.
This was the beginning of a wonderful spring and summer of 2013 when Peter and I were lucky enough to stay at Kunstnarhuset Messen as Artist & Scientist in Residence. It was an enriching experience for us not only in our professional work but also on a personal level to meet the local people and spend time exchanging ideas and stories.
Kunstnarhuset Messen has a wonderful vision for the community and region. We were privileged to be able to spend time there and be embraced into the program and by the Norwegian culture. The influence on the artworks I developed whilst I was artist in residence is also apparent and these works were shown in a solo exhibition at a leading gallery in Hong Kong later in the year.
At Messen I also had time to experiment with material for my multimedia MEOAW Project. I spent many hours filming and recording members of the local community whilst they humoured my strange obsession. The volunteers vocalised the onomatopoeic words for common animals. Footage from this was used in a multimedia exhibition called Wonderment shown at Lingnan University in Hong Kong in 2013.
http://annaglynn.com/wonderment.html
http://annaglynn.com/MEOAWproject.html
There are almost too many things to mention about our time at Kunstnarhuset Messen
…listening to Norwegian folk music
…reading the poetry of Rolf Jacobsen
“The veil of birds around the earth can not be seen from the satellites
but is there just the same, as feather-light tremor of beating wings:
small hammering hearts and lightning sharp double lenses
photograph our days like the orbiting spies, but they don’t tell…”
…long mountain walks
…spring galloping along, dragging late fruit blossoms to open with impatience
…snuggling on the couch reading Peer Gynt
…time at the local library reading about Norwegian culture
…mowing giant snail designs into the lawn
…composing music with me on the piano and Bjørn Otto Wallevik on his guitar
…catching cod
…exchanging ideas with the other artists
…listening to Susan practice her fiddle
…visiting summer houses
…travelling on boats
…making new friends
…listening to music by Geirr Tveitt
…reading poetry by Olav H. Hauge
For us Kunstnarhuset Messen provided a safe and nurturing environment to develop new works and skills and collaborate with local artists and the community…a place for artists from around the world to meet and exchange ideas…the beginning of new ongoing conversations and relationships that are important to the development of cultural exchange…a unique resource to be cherished!
Thank you Kunstnarhuset Messen and especially Ingunn. Like migratory birds we would willingly ‘fly’ back.
Anna Glynn & Peter Dalmazzo
www.annaglynn.com
No-one has marked out the road
you are to take
out in the unknown
out in the blue.
This is your road.
Only you
will take it. And there’s no
turning back.
And you haven’t marked your road
either.
And the wind smoothes out your tracks
on desolate hills.
Your Way by Olav H. Hauge
Anna Glynn & Peter Dalmazzo – Australia
Artist & Scientist in Residence Summer 2013
Kunstnarhuset Messen, Ålvik, Norway
Search, was the working title for the work in progress, a project that began in Messen, and became a project called Tea-time.
Every day, walking, collecting branches, thinking, building ….
My stay at the residence, was a meeting with myself, learning and reflection of my life experiences, a quiet place, peace and concentration.
Meeting new artists, sharing excursions contact with nature..
Thank you very much to all the family of Messen, for making my stay an unforgettable experience.
That moment of rest, a pause , thoughts, dreams …
Each tea bag, a leaf, a dream.
Connection with myself, with nature, like a language close to the spirit and essence of things (a fallen leaf in the autumn wind, returning to life a branch). Draw sculptures in empty space, weaving new realities within other. Every corner , a stop along the way is a laboratory of experimentation, questioning, learning …
Works that are adapted to the exhibition space, a game projected on the wall shadows, the very transparent rice paper, which allows us to see very subtle inside the bags of paper, twigs found in nature, in this case, found in the environment close the residence , Messen.
We weave our own dreams, a new habitat.
About my objectives :
I’m interested in the combination between ARTIST RESEARCH and ARTIST EDUCATION.To investigate the way between Architectural + Sculpture = “Archisculture” , New architectural forms with organic materials and ephemeral works.
Integration with the landscape. Nature as a laboratory for experimentation, discovery, learning ..
Construction and deconstruction.
Playing with the concept inside and outside.
Bring small parts of nature back to life.
Through recycling as a way …, creating pieces as from paper, other than materials found at the site ..Bring small parts of nature back to life.
Hands as my instrument, knotting with our hands as the birds make their nests, intersect one another, Knitting with wire….
We weave our own dreams, a new habitat.
Paola Ruiz Moltó
www.paolaruizmolto.es
Paola (Spain) was a guestartist in Messen from september until november 2013.
“Activity carried out with the help of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports, Spain” /
” Actividad realizada con la ayuda del Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte, España”
The three most important things about Alvik in November are: weather, rocks and darkness..
My favourite bad weather
My favourite rock
My favourite darkness
Natalia Zaluska, Poland, artist in residency Messen, November 2013.
For me my stay at Messen represented my first trip to Norway. I didn’t know what to expect when I arrived in Alvik but soon found myself enjoying all the aspects of small town life in Norway.
We played bingo… and won! 300kr!
We went fishing… and caught fish!
And of course we enjoyed the lovely landscape.
When I came to Messen I thought it was important to try and gain access to the Bjølvefossen factory. Over one hundred years old, the factory is the reason Alvik exists and still employs many of the people here While I was warned it would be difficult to get inside I was lucky enough to meet a local employee to helped me with my project and I spent two days photographing inside.
I thought it was important to give a view inside this local institution to those who otherwise might never see what happens as they work their magic and turn rock and coal into metal.
I also began the process of doing interviews with current and former factory workers including 94-year-old Harald Vollestad who worked in the factory for 51 years. Having an opportunity to speak with him about his experiences was one of the highlights of my trip.
I hope to partner with the Industrial Museum here in Alvik and return to do more oral history interviews. Until then I will remember my time at Messen fondly.
Damaso Reyes USA, Nov-dec 2013
Damaso Reyes and Diane Sylvester from New York, where residencies at Kunstnarhuset Messen from the end of October until December 2013.
