Kjetil Berge
BIO
Kjetil Berge is the main curator for AMIFF 2024 second year running . VÁLMMAS ON IT, this year's festival is the third in a series of art events he has curated concerned with group belonging and alliances. Read his curatorial text below.
Berge is educated in Bergen, Lisbon and London. Berge is a visual artist with a curatorial practice. His home in Lofoten and he maintains a strong connection to London. Every year, artists and creatives locally and from other places in Norway and abroad contribute to the Midnightsunscream festival at Kvalnes. It includes collaborations concerning both curation and production and is an important part of Berge's artistic activity.
Collaboration is often part of Berge's practice. Invited by Ida Lykken Gosh, they co-curated the exhibition BEND IT at Atelier Nord 2022. The photo art project Grímur with Gøran Ohldieck is in the collection KODE Museum, Bergen. Grímur was shown at Nordens Hus, Reykjavik 1983 and again in 2023 and linked to Reykjavik Pride, forty years after it was censored. The collaboration Signe Holm, Kjetil Berge and Jason Havneraas won the Fotokunstprisen BKH 2024 with the film Bad Words.
Berge has in addition to KODE, works in the National Museum, Trondheim Art Museum and a selection of both private and public collections.
Curator text
“VÁLMMAS ON IT is the title of the Arctic Moving Image & Film Festival (AMIFF) 2024.
VÁLMMAS is a Sami word and means “I'm on the move, ready”. ON IT is an English expression, which means to actively address a problem, as in: “I’m on it!”
VÁLMMAS ON IT, is an affirming expression, meaning being prepared for action and taking action at the same time. The future is always in the present and carries our histories. The title is a starting point for a conversation on making, thinking and acting together in the here and now.
VÁLMMAS ON IT, AMIFF 2024 is the third of a series of art events from a queer perspective connecting potential allies between divergent groups and affiliations.
The first exhibition BEND IT, in 2022 at Atelier Nord co-curated with Ida Lykken Gosh was a group exhibition celebrating the queer, their co-players and speculative co-conspirators.
Event number two, BEND IT, MAYBE ( film festival AMIFF in 2023) The film festival focussed on group belonging via recent Norwegian immigration history and web-based exploration of identity through avatars.
VÁLMMAS ON IT is composed of two languages opposite in usage and recognition placed side by side. The first part is in Sami. A transnational language group almost eradicated. The second in English which no longer represents only English culture. Started by colonisation it is continuously spreading and expanding its global reach.
Norwegianization, the destructive consequence of the Norwegian state's policy towards the Sami culture has made the Sami and other minority languages decline in use. In the Sami area where AMIFF takes place, it has almost disappeared.
Art is always a useful political tool which can be pushed for gain and is infinitely adaptable. It can be used to justify difference, and provide groups and affiliations with symbols and cultural narratives to underpin their uniqueness. It can also perforate walls of separation and create affiliations across dividing lines.
History has been determined by the division of space, into private property, nations and empires and has led to a colonisation of time. What if we think about the present as a moment that we share, on Earth, with our different histories, experiences and identities? How shall we free our time now? “
- Kjetil Berge