You are invited to "Intimacy in Public", a research-based inter-disciplinary program located between the fields of art and law that will serve as a site for collective and collaborative explorations of intimacy in public.
As a FORTHEM-collaboration between Joachim Friis, PhD fellow at University of Agder and Stacy Fournette, PhD fellow at University of Bourgogne, as well as artists from Norway and France, the project suggests the medium of public performance and street art as a path toward discussing the unstable relations between the public and the private and how intimacy might arise in situations that unfold between artistic expressions and the public.
Inspired by cultural theorist Lauren Berlant’s concept of intimate publics, the program investigates how performance and street art can cultivate trust, emotional resonance, and social connection among strangers in shared urban space. What happens when intimacy becomes a collective, public experience?
Language: English
Free entry
PROGRAM:
Sunday 17th of August at Jens Bjørneboe Plass:
13:00 - Grafitti Workshop with Benjamin Locatelli aka Writink.
A participatory street art experience where public space becomes a stage for shared expression. Everyone is welcome to leave a trace, a color, a fragment of themselves, a thought for society, or anything else that might meaningfully contribute to the question of intimacy in public space. These fleeting fragments of life will be layered, one over another, in a collective work where each voice finds its place.
14:30 - Performance with Finn Adrian Jorkjen "Love Language"
The performance is a staged talk show that takes place at the square. The audience is invited to be interviewed and talk about love (in the broadest sense). The artist takes on the role of presenter and leads spectators and participants through a Socratic conversation about relationships, loneliness and coexistence.
15:30 - Performative workshops with Mathilde Hirth & Maggi Asbjørnsen "Holding Practice"
In a meeting initiated by two dancers, passers-by and the audience is invited to take part in a moment of holding and being held. The meeting is invited through words and movement with a focus on giving and taking weight and balance, and explores what becomes of relationships, meaningful moments and choreographic sequences through such a transfer of weight. What happens when we choose to let go and be held?
16:30 - Dance performance with Jean-Baptiste Baele "Fault Lines"
"Fault Lines" is a physical and emotional exploration of the hidden cracks that shape our bodies, relationships, and the world we live in. Inspired by the image of geological fault lines, fractures beneath the surface that shift under pressure, the performance reflects on how tension, rupture, and transformation unfold within and between us. The choreography speaks to moments of connection and disconnection, asking how personal experience is always entangled in broader, collective structures.
17:00 - Performance with Gatelangs led by Marianne Nødtvedt Knudsen «A contemporary Institute for combating Loneliness»
«A contemporary Institute for combating Loneliness» is a site-specific street walk performance that was performed in Posebyen 6 in june 2025. In this version of the Contemporary Institute, we will invite the audience to wander together with the company and explore what loneliness can be. What does it look like? How does it move? How does it sound? What can we do – as strangers – to combat loneliness? Parts of the performance will be performed in Norwegian, and there will be handouts with English texts.
Monday 18th of August at Kristiansand Kunsthall:
14:00 - Welcome by Joachim Friis and Stacy Fournette. Introduction to the project. Coffee, drinks, café and snacks is served.
14:15-15:00 - A conversation between Joachim Friis and curator Miki Gebrelul: curatorial perspectives on intimacy, the public and performance art.
15.00-15:30 - Talk by Stacy Fournette. Legal reflections on performance and street art in public space. Overview of French law and recent controversies surrounding artistic expression.
15:30-15:45 – Short break and refreshments.
15:45-16:45 - Video screening and discussion: Presentation of Sunday's recorded public interactions.
16:45-17:30 -Talk with the the artists.
17:30-18:00 - Q&A session with the audience.
18:00 - Closing of the conference. Thank you for participating !
More about the program:
The first day will take place on Jens Bjørneboes Plass. Here, we will create a concrete context for "intimate publicness" to be probed through artistic workshops, performances, and lectures.
The second day of the progam will be a seminar at Kristiansand Kunsthall where will discuss the delimitations of artistic freedom that the law forms versus the rights of artists to public expression.
With a point of departure in the program's performances and workshops, we will explore the encounters of potential intimacy that arised. Furthermore, in the intersection between art and law, we will talk about the rights of individual citizens to "privacy" in public space versus the potentials for art to challenge how we think of and interact in these spaces. How to assure the liberty of the artist while making sure that other citizens do not feel that their existence in public space is threatened. And how art can be part of the debate by challenging individuals' understanding of the private and the public. This is a dilemma that becomes further complex considering the recent moralization of the public space that has been created through law interventions that seek to protect dignity and morality, potentially at the expense of the liberty of public (artistic) expression.
Also check out other Arts events in Kristiansand, Workshops in Kristiansand, Meetups in Kristiansand.
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