About

Lofoten International Art Festival – LIAF is a biennial for contemporary art with a history spanning over 30 years. LIAF is a festival for Northern Norway, an important event in Norwegian art life and an international meeting place.

Lofoten International Art Festival has a history dating back to 1991. LIAF began as a festival with a regional and national focus, and gradually developed into the international biennial it is today. Since 2009, LIAF has been under the auspices of North Norwegian Art Centre. It has an artistic council with six members.

The artistic council consists of glass artist Sigrid Høyforsslett Bjørbæk (chair), director of North Norwegian Art Centre Marianne Hultman, director of Sør-Troms Museum Sabrina van der Ley, artist Kjetil Berge, associate professor of art history Hanne Hammer Stien, and ceramist and entrepreneur Halvor Skiftun Digernes.

The festival has no fixed venue, but is created anew each time by infiltrating and exploring Lofoten’s local surroundings. LIAF has exhibited art in a park, a garage, a library, a shed, a bunker, a fishing hut, a private house, a shop, an old warehouse, etc. Developing and discovering new understandings and knowledge through art lie at the core of the festival.

Each festival is designed by curators with different backgrounds, ideas and practices, bringing together the known and the unknown in different ways. By insisting on an open and experimental approach, LIAF can on many levels be a place for exchange and engagement, revealing new things about our world and ourselves over and over again.

Lofoten International Art Festival has been curated by Tor Inge Kveum, Per Gunnar Tverbakk, Vibeke Sjøvoll, Gry Ulrichsen, Göran Christenson, Maaretta Jaukkuri, Taru Elfving, Richard Borgström, Helga-Marie Nordby, Thora Dolven Balke, Linn Pedersen, Anne Szefer Karlsen, Bassam El Baroni, Eva González-Sancho, Matt Packer, Arne Skaug Olsen, Heidi Ballet, Milena Høgsberg, Neal Cahoon, Hilde Methi, Torill Østby Haaland and Karolin Tampere, as well as Francesco Urbano Ragazzi.

For information about previous editions of LIAF go to Archive : LIAF Info & Archive