Wednesday, October 23, 2024
07:00 PM (01:00 PM New York)
Elise Macmillan, Lofoten International Art Festival, The Kitchen
Live from Sørvågen Radio
46 Canal StreetNew York

It would take 46 days to row a boat nonstop from Sørvågen, Norway to New York City. This is the amount of delay of the live broadcast on Montez Press Radio of a concert that took place on September 7, 2024, at Sørvågen Radio, the former telegraph station in the remote fishing village far west in the Lofoten islands of Northern Norway.

At Sørvågen Radio, Elise Macmillan played long fiddle bows made from magnetic tape, instruments made from walkmans and answering machines, and fiddle bows made from the hair of an unusually tall horse. This concert was central to Macmillan's participation in the Lofoten International Art Festival - LIAF 2024: SPARKS, on view in Svolvær, Norway from September 20–October 20, 2024.

The long tape bow instruments were made together with artist Carl Schrecongost in Northern Norway and in New York, each bow with its own character and name including Gliss farm, Impatience, Allergies, and Harstad Barne og Undomskor’s. Following the broadcast at Sørvågen, she played together with a long tape bow ensemble—Kaja Krakowian, Joseph Helland, and Jonatan Nilsson—in Svolvær as part of the opening program for LIAF 2024. Later this fall, on November 22, she will perform a new version of the work as part of the exhibition "Lines of Distribution" at The Kitchen in New York (on view November 21, 2024–January 25, 2025). The exhibition represents the culmination of The Kitchen's cross-institutional dialogue with Lofoten International Art Festival – LIAF (Lofoten, Norway) and its organizer North Norwegian Art Centre.

Live from Sørvågen Radio features Kjell Alf Øye, Carl Schrecongost, Kaja Krakowian, Joseph Helland, Jonatan Nilsson, Today's Favorite Singers, Kjersti Solbakken, and Dávvet Bruun-Solbakk.Elise Macmillan is a violinist and musician living in Norway. Her projects range from sculptural installations to sound works accessible as a telephone hotline. She moved from the US to Telemark to play the Hardanger Fiddle and has composed music for wandering choir, string ensemble, and percussionists, and a song cycle on endless loop tape. Recent projects and residencies include Kunstnernes Hus, nyMusikk, Haus der Kunst, Oslo, Composer's Kitchen with Quatuor Bozzini and EMS, Stockholm.

The Lofoten International Art Festival – LIAF is the longest-running contemporary art biennial in Scandinavia. LIAF 2024 takes place in Svolvær, Norway, from September 20–October 20, 2024 and is curated by Kjersti Solbakken. Titled "Gnissambandet - SPARKS," this edition of the biennial is inspired by the history of the Lofoten Line: one of the world’s first experiments in wireless telegraphic communication.

The Kitchen is one of New York's oldest non-profit art spaces. The exhibition "Lines of Distribution" will take place at The Kitchen at Westbeth from November 21, 2024–January 18, 2025. Organized by Alison Burstein, Curator, The Kitchen with Kjersti Solbakken as Curatorial Advisor, "Lines of Distribution" draws on The Kitchen’s history of presenting and disseminating avant-garde art for over 50 years, asking: In what ways can experimental practices from previous eras springboard new strategies for the distribution and circulation of art across today’s global circuits?

Taking up this question, the exhibition reanimates aspects of The Kitchen’s past programming through a cross-institutional dialogue with Lofoten International Art Festival – LIAF (Lofoten, Norway) and its organizer North Norwegian Art Centre.