Machine Membranes
2023 - In Art Projects

Machine Membranes
Mari Kvien Brunvoll, Nayara Leite & Marie Nerland
Friday 28th of April at 18
Duration, approximately 30 minutes
Free entrance.
https://www.lydgalleriet.no/archive/machine-membranes
Technology has become the body's new membrane for existence, artist Nam June Paik once stated. In the new performance work titled "Machine Membranes" the theme is man and machine and the relation between technology and the human body. The performance is created in collaboration between the artists Nayara Leite and Marie Nerland and composer, singer and multi-instrumentalist Mari Kvien Brunvoll and is created in and for the premises of Lydgalleriet in Bergen.
The project originated in a shared interest in science fiction and in the dystopian, yet alluring aspects of technological development. It explores how machines surround us more and more and gradually become part of us, how we are tracked by sensors and algorithms in our increasingly mediated way of experiencing and being in the world. The performance presents some aspects in the development of the membranes between the human body and machines – from the first typewriter called cembalo scrivano to the present-day machines that scan the reactions of the human body and thus increase its potential for surveillance.
Mari Kvien Brunvoll is a composer, singer and multi-instrumentalist living in Bergen. She studied improvisational music at the Grieg Academy in Bergen, and has released nine albums with various projects, including with the band Building Instrument and the duo-project with Stein Urheim. Kvien Brunvoll has toured regularly in Norway and Europe since 2008, and she has received international attention in particular for her solo project where she mainly uses her voice and electronics to create unique compositions and improvisations. In recent years, she has started to play on instruments that she has created herself. She also works with dance, theatre, film, and with sound installations. She has participated at festivals such as Borealis, Ultimafestivalen, Moldejazz, Øyafestivalen and Nattjazz. This year, she is the composer for the theatre production Møt meg ved morgengry, a co-production between Teater Innlandet and the Nationaltheatret, and with a new commissioned work for Vossajazz with Stein Urheim and the trio Moskus.
Marie Nerland is an artist and curator who lives in Trondheim after many years in Bergen. As an artist, she works with performance, text and video, and the projects are often in collaboration with other artists. Recent projects are an exhibition at Oppland Kunstsenter in collaboration with Icaro Zorbar (2022), the long-term project Paviljong Våtmark by the Østensjøvannet in Oslo together with Andrea Bakketun, Espen Sommer Eide, Geir Tore Holm, Øyvind Novak Jenssen, Søssa Jørgensen, Signe Lidén, Randi Nygård and Karoline Sætre; Small Projects in Tromsø (2019), P///AKT in Amsterdam (2019), Hordaland kunstsenter (2018), all three in collaboration with Nickel Van Duijvenboden, and a lecture performance at Landmark, Bergen Kunsthall (2017). Nerland holds a master degree in theater studies from the University of Bergen and a MA-level degree in curatorial practice from the Bergen Academy of Art and Design. She founded and runs the curatorial project Volt, which is based in Bergen. In 2021, she was the recipient of OCA's curatorial residency at ISCP in Brooklyn. https://www.marienerland.no
Nayara Leite is a Brazilian artist and writer based in Bergen, Norway. She holds an MFA from the Bergen Art Academy and an MA in Photojournalism & Documentary Photography from the London College of Communication. Leite works across text, performance, analogue photography, video and installation. Through autobiographical narrative, political news, letters to close friends and archival material, she produces a portrayal of the reality in which the LGBTQ+ community lives in Brazil and in Norway. She has exhibited and/or held performances at Bergen Kunsthall, Palmera, Isotop, Bergen Kjøtt and KODE 2 in Bergen; Preus Museum in Horten; Studio 17 in Stavanger; and Kunstnerforbundet in Oslo.
https://nayaraleite.com
The project has received funding from City of Bergen. Parts of the material of the project was developed in a studio residency at BEK – Bergen Centre for Electronic Arts.
Photo: Runa Halleraker
Machine Membranes
2023 - In Art Projects
Machine Membranes
Mari Kvien Brunvoll, Nayara Leite & Marie Nerland
Friday 28th of April at 18
Duration, approximately 30 minutes
Free entrance.
https://www.lydgalleriet.no/archive/machine-membranes
Technology has become the body's new membrane for existence, artist Nam June Paik once stated. In the new performance work titled "Machine Membranes" the theme is man and machine and the relation between technology and the human body. The performance is created in collaboration between the artists Nayara Leite and Marie Nerland and composer, singer and multi-instrumentalist Mari Kvien Brunvoll and is created in and for the premises of Lydgalleriet in Bergen.
The project originated in a shared interest in science fiction and in the dystopian, yet alluring aspects of technological development. It explores how machines surround us more and more and gradually become part of us, how we are tracked by sensors and algorithms in our increasingly mediated way of experiencing and being in the world. The performance presents some aspects in the development of the membranes between the human body and machines – from the first typewriter called cembalo scrivano to the present-day machines that scan the reactions of the human body and thus increase its potential for surveillance.
Mari Kvien Brunvoll is a composer, singer and multi-instrumentalist living in Bergen. She studied improvisational music at the Grieg Academy in Bergen, and has released nine albums with various projects, including with the band Building Instrument and the duo-project with Stein Urheim. Kvien Brunvoll has toured regularly in Norway and Europe since 2008, and she has received international attention in particular for her solo project where she mainly uses her voice and electronics to create unique compositions and improvisations. In recent years, she has started to play on instruments that she has created herself. She also works with dance, theatre, film, and with sound installations. She has participated at festivals such as Borealis, Ultimafestivalen, Moldejazz, Øyafestivalen and Nattjazz. This year, she is the composer for the theatre production Møt meg ved morgengry, a co-production between Teater Innlandet and the Nationaltheatret, and with a new commissioned work for Vossajazz with Stein Urheim and the trio Moskus.
Marie Nerland is an artist and curator who lives in Trondheim after many years in Bergen. As an artist, she works with performance, text and video, and the projects are often in collaboration with other artists. Recent projects are an exhibition at Oppland Kunstsenter in collaboration with Icaro Zorbar (2022), the long-term project Paviljong Våtmark by the Østensjøvannet in Oslo together with Andrea Bakketun, Espen Sommer Eide, Geir Tore Holm, Øyvind Novak Jenssen, Søssa Jørgensen, Signe Lidén, Randi Nygård and Karoline Sætre; Small Projects in Tromsø (2019), P///AKT in Amsterdam (2019), Hordaland kunstsenter (2018), all three in collaboration with Nickel Van Duijvenboden, and a lecture performance at Landmark, Bergen Kunsthall (2017). Nerland holds a master degree in theater studies from the University of Bergen and a MA-level degree in curatorial practice from the Bergen Academy of Art and Design. She founded and runs the curatorial project Volt, which is based in Bergen. In 2021, she was the recipient of OCA's curatorial residency at ISCP in Brooklyn. https://www.marienerland.no
Nayara Leite is a Brazilian artist and writer based in Bergen, Norway. She holds an MFA from the Bergen Art Academy and an MA in Photojournalism & Documentary Photography from the London College of Communication. Leite works across text, performance, analogue photography, video and installation. Through autobiographical narrative, political news, letters to close friends and archival material, she produces a portrayal of the reality in which the LGBTQ+ community lives in Brazil and in Norway. She has exhibited and/or held performances at Bergen Kunsthall, Palmera, Isotop, Bergen Kjøtt and KODE 2 in Bergen; Preus Museum in Horten; Studio 17 in Stavanger; and Kunstnerforbundet in Oslo.
https://nayaraleite.com
The project has received funding from City of Bergen. Parts of the material of the project was developed in a studio residency at BEK – Bergen Centre for Electronic Arts.
Photo: Runa Halleraker