In the margins of the ocean
– The project you have with Extouire and Rom is called “Dissident Publics”. What do you put that name?
For us, it’s about rethinking public spaces and thinking about people who aren’t included in this space today. In this way, we are splintered. We are interested in those who are excluded or found on the fringes of our shared spaces. It is by directing our gaze to where we are also able to include the anomalous in architecture, for example.
Therefore, Nogoods Studio is also concerned with cases where excluded people use or take back public spaces and use them in new, unintended ways. They take an example from the mirror-like building of the CCCB Barcelona Contemporary Art Center.
– Many people are excluded from entering these centers, but here the mirror effect of the glass facade means that young people are beginning to use the space outside the center as an outdoor dance studio. We want to explore this method of restoring public spaces.
In the office in Bergen, they have already organized writing courses and presented performing art projects. Their magazine project “Bias – Bodies in Architecture Structures” is now in the editing stage and will be published in 2023.
A room outside Oslo
Gjertrud Steinsvåg explains that organizing a Rom project like this one in Bergen is also part of a larger strategy. They have also visited Bergen, Trondheim and Tromsø with smaller events. The goal is to become a more patriotic player – outside the showroom and boardroom in Oslo.
Our strategy states that we will be a venue for projects related to art and architecture, site development and public space, working locally, nationally and internationally with this. The group on this project is very international and the fact that we are now in Bergen means that we are now also located outside of Oslo. It is also important for us to connect with other representatives, both larger and smaller, to show that we can be an attractive and useful partner.
– Why is it important to you?
Because we believe that there is a potential and a need for us to expand our means and forms of communication. With the interdisciplinary approach we operate from, we find slightly different problems. We feel there is an interest in this. At the moment we are running and testing what it would be like to take on this role, but we hope and believe that this will be an important part of further ROM development.
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