LIAF - Lofoten International Art Festival - the longest-running contemporary art biennial in Scandinavia, celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. The North Norwegian Art Centre has been responsible for LIAF since 2009. The festival has a nomadic character and is held every two years at different venues in the Lofoten islands, an archipelago above the Arctic Circle. The extreme context in which LIAF operates has always dictated a sustainable production system that integrates with the complex natural and cultural ecosystem of the area.
LIAF 2022 is curated by the duo Francesco Urbano Ragazzi and is entitled Fantasmagoriana. It runs from September 3 to October 2 of 2022, at five sites in the city of Kabelvåg. The city was chosen because it’s both the place where Dada artist Kurt Schwitters was confined during the Nazi occupation of Norway, and because it’s now home to the film school Nordland kunst- og filmhøgskole, which offers an excellence in moving image education.
LIAF 2022 - Fantasmagoriana did not originate from a concept, but from the sharing of an oral tale. This narrative was imagined as a tactic for transmitting tacit knowledge, in which information about natural, fictional, and political events could weave freely into new maps, evolving and adapting to the contexts in which the invited artists operate.
Haroon Mirza
LIAF 2022 - Fantasmagoriana, Lofoten, NO
3 September - 2 October 2022
