The festival presents works by international artists in a local and site-specific context and seeks to be an open, experimental, and including meeting place for artists, audience, and locals. LIAF acknowledges the complexity of place and seeks to be a discursive, engaged, and social platform for different positions creating dialogue between the local and global.
The festival was first initiated in 1991, as a local art exhibition with a broad range of expressions and with a regional profile. From 1999, the festival was given an international profile changing the name to Lofoten International Art Festival, and since 2009, the festival has been run by The North Norwegian Art Center (NNKS) and the LIAF-Board.
LIAF presents works by international artists in a local and site-specific context and seeks to be an open, experimental and including meeting place for artists, audience and locals. LIAF acknowledges the complexity of place and seeks to be a discursive, engaged and social platform for different positions creating dialogue between the local and global. The prospect of developing and discovering new knowledge and understanding through art is the core of the festival.
LIAF is not connected to a permanent location or space, but is invented anew every time by infiltrating and moving into already existing structures: Everything from a garage, a library, a shed, a bunker, a fish drying rack, a private house, a shop or an old warehouse. New curators also develop the festival every time, with diverse backgrounds, ideas and practices and in different ways bringing the familiar and unfamiliar together. By insisting on this open and experimental approach, we believe LIAF can be a place for exchange and involvement on multitude levels, every time revealing new things about our world and ourselves.
LIAF has taken place eight times since 1999 presenting artists like Gillian Wearing, Lawrence Weiner, AK Dolven, Ken Lum, Olafur Eliasson, Mari Slaattelid, Elmgren & Dragseth, Gardar Eide Einarsson, Pipilotti Rist, Geir Tore Holm, Eija Liisa Athila, Jesper Just, Amar Kanwar, Tori Wrånes, Michel Auder, Kjersti Andvig, John Giorno, Lene Berg, Lindsay Seers, David Horvitz, Mahmoud Khaled, HC Gilje, Karl Larsson, Shilpa Gupta, István Csácány, Lisa Tan and many more.
LIAF curators of previous editions have been: Tor Inge Kveum, Per Gunnar Tverbakk, Vibeke Sjøvoll, Gry Ulrichsen, Göran Christenson, Maaretta Jaukkuri, Taru Elfving, Richard Borgström, Helga-Marie Nordby, Thora Dolven Balke, Linn Pedersen, Anne Szefer Karlsen, Bassam El Baroni and Eva González-Sancho, Matt Packer and Arne Skaug Olsen.
Source: liaf.no