Solace (2022, 25 min, Birgitte Sigmundstad
Harstad Kino, screen 2
We are showing the new film by Birgitte Sigmundstad, Solace (2022) and her film Hammersborg Protecting the Bygone Future (2016) about the Y block.
Conversation after the films: Exploring architecture through film.
After the films, there will be a conversation between video artist and researcher Elisabeth Brun and director Birgitte Sigmundstad. They will talk about what we lost when the Y block was demolished despite protests and demonstrations and how film can be used as a medium and as an opportunity to understand, collect and explore our history.
About the films:
Solace (2022, 25 min) is a film about time and architecture. The film opens with curious visitors at the Y block but then takes us further into stave churches which were also once threatened with demolition. The film dwells on the churches with their stories, memories and local roots. Alternately, we see the Y block being prepared for demolition. Sketches by Erling Viksjø, archive material and new footage are mixed and turn the film into a collage that asserts that a building is always more than just a building.
"Hammersborg - Protecting the bygone Future" (2016, 17 min) is based on a text by Kjetil A. Jakobsen and filmed in the government quarter in Oslo. The film tells the story of the Høyblokka and the Y-blokka - about architect Erling Viksjø's visions and about the art created by Picasso, Inger Sitter, Carl Nesjar and others who are integrated into the building. The story of the buildings is also the story of the optimistic period in Norway when the buildings were erected and the terror on 22 July 2011. The film has previously been shown at festivals in Norway and at festivals such as Architecture Film Festival Rotterdam (AFFR), Architecture Film Festival London and Aestethica Film Festival.
Birgitte Sigmundstad is a visual artist, educated at the Surrey Institute of Art & Design in England. Sigmundstad's films are essayistic, self-reflexive and humorous and are often based on historical events. A recurring theme in Sigmundstad's films is how art is used ideologically and as part of nation-building.
Elisabeth Brun is a film and video artist and researcher. She works at the intersection between documentary, philosophy and visual art and is particularly interested in film as a tool for exploring surroundings, such as architecture. She understands film as an environment, as something that surrounds and shapes us. She has previously worked as a journalist and documentary filmmaker at NRK and has a doctorate on film as thinking from the University of Oslo.
"Hammersborg - Protecting the bygone Future" (2016, 17 min), Birgitte Sigmundstad