Lofoten International Art Festival (LIAF) 2022 artists Nolan Oswald Dennis and Raffaela Naldi Rossano are arriving in Tromsø after a three-week trip with F/F Helmer Hanssen from Tromsø and up along the coast. In collaboration with Academy of Arts, UiT and the research group Worlding Northern Art (WONA), UiT a conversation led by Hanne Hammer Stien will be held at Academy of Arts, June 15th at 5 pm. Stien is a member of LIAF`s advisory board.

Nolan Oswald Dennis is a para-disciplinary artist based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Their practice explores ‘a black consciousness of space’ – the material and metaphysical conditions of decolonization and planetary transformation – questioning the techno-political history of space (and time) through system-specific, rather than site-specific interventions. They hold a bachelor’s degree in Architecture from the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) and a Master of Science in Art, Culture and Technology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Their work has been featured in exhibitions at the Goodman Gallery (Johannesburg, Cape Town, London), Palais de Tokyo (Paris), MACBA (Barcelona), AutoItalia SouthEast (London), CAN (Neuchatel), the Young Congo Biennale (Kinshasa) among others. They are a founding member of artist group NTU, a research associate at the VIAD research centre at the University of Johannesburg, and co-editor of Indexing Imaginaries, the 8th volume in the Data Browser book series

Raffaela Naldi Rossano (b. 1990) lives in Naples. Through the activation of
transformative processes, she engages in the investigation of new possible relationships and forms of intimacy, care, and revelation, both psychological and socio-economical, between spaces, bodies, and objects. Her installations, integrating sculptures, moving image, sound, group experiences and poetry, are conceived as spaces of transition were meaning around hidden and suppressed histories, individual or collective, is re-created and exposed. Through them, she aims to pursue a breakdown of the architectural environment and a feminist reappropriation of space and landscape, in a poetic articulation of the territory. Raffaela Naldi Rossano is currently working on an on-going research and film project which revolves around the myth of the Siren Parthenope —the founding myth of the city of Naples. Raffaela Naldi Rossano was one of the participating artists in the 2020 edition of Quadriennale D’Arte, Rome, curated by Sarah Cosulich and Stefano Collicelli Cagol. Among her recent exhibitions: Undomesticated Voices, Istituto Svizzero, Milano; Directed by Desire, Rongwrong, Amsterdam; How She Spins, Damien & Love The Guru, Brussels; Utopia Distopia: il mito del progresso partendo dal Sud, curated by Kathryn Weir, Madre, Naples (2021); There is no Time to Enjoy the Sun, Fondazione Morra Greco, Naples (2021); Waves between Us, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Guarene; I Confess, curated by Chus Martinez, der TANK, Basel (2019); Doing Deculturalization, Museion, Bolzano (2019); Partenope, Aetopoulos, Athens (2019); May the Bridges I Burn, Manifesta, Palermo (2018).

LIAF is a biennial festival for contemporary art with a history going back to 1991. It takes place in Lofoten, an archipelago located on the northern coast of Norway, just above the Arctic Circle. LIAF presents works by international artists in a local and site-specific context, acknowledges the complexity of place and seeks to be an open, experimental and including meeting place for artists, audience, and locals. Since 2009, the festival has been organised and administered by the North Norwegian Art Center (NNKS) and LIAF’s Artistic Advisory Board.

LIAF 2022 is curated by Francesco Urbano Ragazzi and will take place September 3. until October 2.