Fergus Tibbs

Fergus Tibbs is an artist, DJ, and cultural producer originally from Glasgow, Scotland, now based in Bergen, Norway. He holds an MFA from the Art Academy Bergen and a BA (Hons) from DJCAD, Dundee.

Fergus’ projects are usually cross-disciplinary and collaborative, incorporating ideas and practices from people of different backgrounds. Central to his work is oral communication and human interaction, often creating situations that encourage conversations and public dialogue. His previous projects include club nights, radio stations, a swimming club, parties, exhibitions, pubs, and workshops.

For the past ten years, he has been DJing and organising parties and club nights in Bergen and across Scotland. He is the co-organiser and resident DJ of the club night ‘Keep it Dark’ at Østre, Bergen. He uses this regular party as a test site for different clubbing ideas, often playing with the physical space as well as light, sound, temperature, and volume.

Hosting has become a key part of Fergus’ work, providing a way to initiate interactions and gatherings. His ongoing project, ‘Hosting Infrastructure,’ plays with the physical architecture involved in gathering human bodies. He creates structures and environments that serve as a substrate for public events, where people can sit, gather, eat, perform, dance, or talk. His approach is fun, silly, and welcoming whilst always trying to be accessible, drawing in people with a broad range of perspectives.

Image 1: Hosting Infrastructure (Acid Re-Work), 2023, Østre, Bergen

Image 2: Hosting Infrastructure (Acid Re-Work), 2023, Østre, Bergen.

Image 3: Hosting Infrastructure (Dub Version), 2023, Visningsrommet USF (Meteor Festival), Bergen

Image 4: Air Conditions radio broadcast W/ Freya coursey, Liis Ring and Pernille Meidell, Live on Vers Libre and Seyðisfjörður community radio, 2022, Ekko Festival
Image credit Ekko festival

'Tope Ajayi

'Tope Ajayi is a multi-disciplinary artist and a cultural curator born in Ibadan, Nigeria. He was raised in a household teeming with members from Generation X and the Millennial era. Growing up amidst their cultural nuances, even though he is from Generation Z, provided him a unique blend of influences that shaped his artistic inclinations. This backdrop – complemented by his pianist/DJ uncle, a broadcaster aunt, an art-loving granddad, and a high-school teaching mom – laid the foundation for his creative journey.

Banu Çiçek Tülü

Dr. Banu Çiçek Tülü (Turkey/Germany) is a sound artist, music producer, DJ and researcher with a background in design theory. She develops her ideas and research by using sound as a primary medium and sonic methodologies. Her practice-based artistic approach involves participation, social design, ecology, feminist and queer theory which uses artistic, cultural and political imagination as tools for social change. The process of the artistic production is crucial and it is mostly presented as multi-channel video and sound installations, sculptural elements, textile, various objects, and light. She believes in the political possibilities of sound and music, and utilizes both as an empowerment tool for different communities and minority groups.

Banu’s debut album TranSoundScapes which is released by Berlin based label Intergalactic Research Institute for Sound has been awarded for the the top albums of 2022 by one of the biggest music magazines DJ MAG. She is a fellow of the Namibia Program organized by Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart/Germany. Banu has a monthly residency in Refuge Worldwide Radio in Berlin. She is currently lecturer in Sound Studies and Sonic Acts Master program Berlin University of the Arts. Her upcoming solo exhibition will be shown in GAK Bremen, where she continues to question the German health care system in relation to female body, migration, pain, grief and healing. 

Image 1: Sonic Body Map, 2020, multi-channel sound installation, Feminist Housing (Her)Stories for the Future II at Alpha Nova Gallery Futura, Berlin

Image 2: Pink Noise, 2023. Sound installation. Solo Exhibition at Galerie im Turm, Berlin

Image 3: Pink Noise, 2023. Sound installation. Solo Exhibition at Galerie im Turm, Berlin

Image 4: Sonic Activation, 2021 Performance in Public Space at GossipGossipGossip, Berlin
Credit Victoria Tomaschko

Video:  Pink Noise, 2023. Sound Installation. Solo Exhibition at Galerie im Turm, Berlin

Tor Lukasik-Foss

Tor Lukasik-Foss is an artist whose work explores the nuances of social anxiety disorder, a condition he personally identifies with. His artistic practice, spanning over two decades, delves into the complexities of social interaction, examining themes of isolation, connection, and performance.

Lukasik-Foss's visual art often centers on creating physical and metaphorical barriers between performers and their audiences, exploring the simultaneous desire for connection and disconnection. His work also extends to examining the impact of public signage on urban and natural spaces, as well as investigating the social behavior of crows, animals known for their ambiguous position between solitary and communal living.

In addition to visual art, Lukasik-Foss is a songwriter and storyteller who explores themes of anxiety and social awkwardness in his work. His music, performed under the pseudonym 'tiny bill cody,' can be found in several released collections.

Lukasik-Foss's artistic practice is rooted in Hamilton, Ontario, where he lives with his family. His work has been exhibited across Canada and the U.S., both individually and as part of the artist collective TH&B. His artistic contributions have been recognized and supported by the Ontario Arts Council, the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Hamilton Region Arts Council.

Image 1: Dress Rehearsal (2014) – Tor Lukasik-Foss. Reclaimed wood, Plexiglas, sail maker’s cloth, audio and video. A trio of performance boxes designed to capture the shadows of performers caught in the state of intimate preparation

Image 2-3: I Am Not A Psychic, 2015

Image 3: AQUAVECCHIO / WINDOW ADDRESSING (2022) Reclaimed Furniture, mirror, chalkboard, ephemera

Matilda Moors

Matilda Moors is an artist and educator working with sculpture, writing, and installation. Her work addresses the relationship between cuteness and violence by drawing connections between the physical stresses and abnormalities of cartoon or monstrous bodies and ideas of abjection and difficulty associated with historical feminist and queer artwork. Blending the raw aesthetic of fandom with the polished veneer of animation.

Moors has exhibited throughout the UK and internationally at galleries and institutions including; Somerset House (London), The Horse Hospital (London), Scai the Bathhouse (Tokyo), The Royal Standard (Liverpool), Supercollider (Blackpool), and Strange Cargo (Folkestone). Her writing has appeared in Garageland Magazine and Monstrous Flesh Journal and she is the recipient of the Eaton Fund Grant, the Tokyo Geidai residency and the Mara Lopf Print Prize. She was a founding member of School of the Damned (an alternative MA course) and co-ran artist-led project space SAUNA.

Image 1: Another Body Story, 2019, dual channel audio, 8 min, 17 sec. Performance by Vanessa Borrini. Sound editing by Christian Pollard.

Image 2: Unsocialised Skin, Dragged, 2022, digital print, routed MDF, Variable (505 x 222cm approx.)

Image 3: Sans Sinew, Sans Savour, 2023, latex, fixings, 160 x 240cm

Sara Clugage

Sara Clugage’s is an artist, writer and editor. Her art practice focuses on economic and political issues in craft and food. She has most recently been core faculty for the MA in Critical Craft Studies program at Warren Wilson College and her most recent publication is the 2021 monograph from the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, titled New Recipes: Cooking, Craft, and Performance. Sara is Editor-in-Chief of Dilettante Army, an online magazine for visual culture and critical theory.

Image 1: Gilded Age New York: A Wealth Inequality Dinner, January 20, 2019. Photo: Liz Lignon

This dinner investigated the role of art in wealth inequality. Six courses, prepared from archival recipes, were paired with short lectures on the socioeconomic conditions that made that food possible, drawing attention to how those same factors influenced art production in the period. Topics included Indian chef "Prince" Ranji Smile, the Metropolitan Museum’s Founding Purchase of 1871, the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, the Hudson River School, and Jell-O.

Image 2: Gradient Cocktail, in collaboration with the Sprechgesang Institute for Courses, 2019; drinking glasses, flavored ice cubes, champagne, score for cello; dimensions variable. Photo: Argenis Apolinario.

Part of the Sprechgesang Institute collective's July 2019 dinner performance "Courses," consisted of an ice cube rainbow arranged into glasses, topped with champagne and accompanied by a score on cello. An accompanying text considers the welcoming potential of gradients against the hierarchy of the senses developed by Enlightenment philosopher Étienne Bonnot de Condillac.

Image 3: Still from New Recipes: Cooking, Craft, and Performance, 2022, videos and text. Photo: Tate Yoder.

This 2022 Haystack Monograph consists of an essay, four recipes, and three videos. This project considers how food shapes the ideology and culture of craft schools by examining archival evidence of a 1968 “special culinary session” held at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts. In this video, I make Welsh rarebit in an antique chafing dish and discuss performance art and tableside service.

Image 4: Still from Dessert Democracy, 2020, video, 19:15 duration.

This "cooking show," made for the John Michael Kohler Arts Center as part of the exhibition "Between You and Me" in 2020, demonstrates the making of a Jell-O ribbon mold. Each layer of Jell-O is accompanied by a spoken text about the history of Jell-O and its entanglement with wealth inequality. When the Jell-O mold is revealed, it forms a color chart of current levels of wealth inequality in the United States. Vimeo link: https://vimeo.com/434144120

Åste Amundsen

Åste Amundsen is an artist and researcher creating live interactive experiences that explore human and non-human interaction. Her work focuses on data-augmented human interaction in physical spaces, aiming to enhance audience immersion in shared storyworlds. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Personalised Performance at RHUL.

With over two decades of experience in creative, design, and production roles, Amundsen has delivered tech-enabled staging, interaction, and storytelling for various clients, including independent festivals, theatre installations, and immersive events for private individuals and brands.

Her notable projects include Computer Aided Theatre, which develops tools for live performance, and the interactive black-comedy The Apocalypse Gameshow.

Amundsen is a resident artist at the Pervasive Media Studio (Bristol, UK), and a recipient of Kulturrådet’s Arbeidsstipend (Oslo, Norway). Born in Oslo, she now divides her time between London and Berlin.

Image 1: Welcome to the Dark Ages KLF, 2017. Photo: Mark-Bean Sabino
Image 2: Underground Piano Bar, BBC 2 (photo of a TV screen), 1999
Image 3: Forest Spa: Artists Sanctuary, 2016
Image 4: Apocalypse Gameshow, audience induction form and top-trumps, 2012

Lexie Owen

Lexie Owen (b 1982, Canada) is an Oslo-based interdisciplinary artist whose practice explores notions of the collective, structures of support and the organisational potential of being with. Using artistic, curatorial and textual methods, her projects seek to create unexpected space for intimacies, investigate the material conditions that surround collective acts, and find unconventional expressions of agency within the gestures and social forms that make up everyday life.

Owen is currently based in Oslo and holds a MFA in Art and Public Space from Oslo National Academy of the Arts.

Image 1: Installation view of Dissident Publics (2023) at ROM, photo Bui Quy Son

Image 2: Installation view of Dissident Publics (2023) at ROM, photo Bui Quy Son

Image 3: In process image of Pillowfort (2024) photo Lexie Owen

Image 4: Installation view of The Mall Users Research Association (2020-2022), NITJA, photo Lexie Owen