BERGEN.- Sung Hwan Kim: Dirt in the Shape of You
Opening: October 9, 8pm
For more than two decades, Sung Hwan Kim (b. 1975, Seoul; lives and works in Honolulu) has developed a distinctive artistic practice that intertwines video, music, storytelling, performance, drawing, sculpture, and architecture. The exhibition at Bergen Kunsthall builds upon "Protected by Roof and Right-Hand Muscles," the largest European survey of Kim's work to date. The exhibition was first shown at the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, and was originally curated by Yolande Zola Zoli van der Heide. Original concept by Sung Hwan Kim. The exhibition is developed in partnership with Framer Framed, Amsterdam, the Netherlands and ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Germany. As both artist and exhibition designer, Kim reshapes the exhibition for each venue, rearranging film environments, architectural elements, and performative works to create new relationships between the artworks and the space. Bringing together works from across Kim's career alongside the new productions, the exhibition marks the first major presentation of Kim's work in Norway. In conjunction with the exhibition, David Michael DiGregorio (aka dogr) will perform a version of an ongoing song cycle, which extends his long-term musical collaboration with Kim through sound, text, voice, and narrative.
Dirt in the Shape of You is co-curated by Silja Leifsdottir.
Plattform—Sung Hwan Kim: October 10, 2pm, free admission
Screens—artist films co-programmed with Sung Hwan Kim: November 18, 7pm
Olof Marsja: A Proposal on How to Mend a Broken Line
Opening: October 9, 8pm
Drawing on knowledge from forefathers and foremothers, duodji (Smi crafts), mythology, and material traditions, Olof Marsja (b. 1986, Gllivare; lives and works in Gothenburg) creates works that move between the ancient and the contemporary, the personal and the collective, the remembered and the forgotten. For his exhibition he presents a new constellation of sculptures and figures that inhabit a world where timelines overlap and established categories begin to dissolve.
The exhibition is curated by Silja Leifsdottir and Kjersti Solbakken and builds upon research and inquiries developed through "I din rst bor anden till ett sprk" ("In Your Voice Dwells the Spirit of a Language") at Accelerator in Stockholm, curated by Therese Kellner.
Premiere: Nazanin Noori, A LETTER TO EUROPE
Premiere: September 20, 4pm and 7pm
On September 20, artist Nazanin Noori presents the premiere of A LETTER TO EUROPE, a new spoken word opera commissioned by Bergen Kunsthall based on a poem by poet and playwright Athena Farrokhzad addressing migration, borders, and displacement in contemporary Europe. Combining voice, percussion, and electronics, the work features a score composed by Noori together with musician and composer Andrea Belfi. Taking the myth of Europa from Greek mythology as a point of departure, the work translates themes of coercion and contested belonging into a staged configuration.
A LETTER TO EUROPE is a commissioned work by Bergen Kunsthall, the first of a new three-year live commission series, curated by Jade Meili Barget. The work is also presented at Muse d'Art et d'Histoire, Geneva, and at the Kyiv Biennial at KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin.
Announcing: Pedro Gmez-Egaa is Bergen Kunsthall's Festival Exhibition Artist 2027
Bergen Kunsthall is pleased to announce Pedro Gmez-Egaa as the Festival Exhibition Artist for 2027. Born in Colombia, Pedro Gmez-Egaa resides and works in Oslo. With a comprehensive installation spanning four galleries of Bergen Kunsthall, Gmez-Egaa will examine subterranean space as a setting for extraction, power, and historical oppression. The Festival Exhibition is considered one of the country's most important solo exhibitions. It is curated and produced by Bergen Kunsthall and has run concurrently with the Bergen International Festival since its inception in 1953. The exhibition is titled "GEODEATH" and opens on Thursday, May 27, 2027.
Gmez-Egaa's work has been presented in solo exhibitions at the Museo de Arte Moderno de Medelln (2026), MIT List Visual Arts Center in Cambridge (2025), Podium Oslo (2023), KODE Kunstmuseer in Bergen (2021), and Yarat Contemporary in Baku (2019).
