Matter, Gesture and Soul by MATTER, GESTURE AND SOUL

A cross disciplinary artistic research project that departs from, and investigates several encounters and alignments between Contemporary Art and Archaeology. Its primary goal is to create a broad selection of autonomous and collaborative artistic, poetic and scientific expressions and responses to Prehistoric Art and its contemporary images. It will seek to stimulate a deeper understanding of contemporary and prehistoric artistic expression and the contemporary and prehistoric human condition. The participating artists and archaeologists will create autonomous projects, but also interact with each other in workshops, seminars and collaborative artistic projects. The secondary goal of Matter, Gesture and Soul is to establish an international cross disciplinary research network at the University of Bergen and strengthen the expertise in cross disciplinary artistic and scientific work with artistic research as the driving force. The project is financed by DIKU and UiB and supported by Global Challenges (UiB)

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Fontainebleau field work, March, 2022

A two-day field trip to archaeological and geological sites in the forest of Fontainebleau.

Day one: Visiting three shelters studying engravings from the mesolithic era.

Day two: Visiting abandoned early 19th century industrial geological quarries studying Gogottes, caves and the geological history of Fontainebleau.

Organized by Professor Boris Valentin, and Professor Medard Thiry.

Participants from the Valentin-team (GERSAR) and from the Artistic Research Project: Matter, Gesture, and Soul, Academy of fine art, University of Bergen:

Geir Harald Samuelsen, Eamon O´Kane, Maarten Vanden Eynde, Elin Tanding Sørensen and Iegor Reznikoff.

Gestures of Fire / Pyrolab

(Postponed - Covid)

Group Project / Skien / 2020 - 2022

Pyrolab and Outdoor Classroom is a co-creative process together with students and teachers at the Skien High School.
The Pyrolab will be adapted for the landscape at Klosterøya in Skien. The project is led by artist/landscape architect
Elin T. Sørensen and Mads Pålsrud / Growlab Oslo. The project is supported by Telemark County Municipality,
Public Art Norway (KORO), The Savings Bank Foundation DNB Norway and Steinar Moe Eiendom.

In September 2020 we will arrange the pyro-event Gestures og Fire led by archeologist and anthropologist Professor Dr. Dragoş Gheorghiu with team: Ms. Mihaela Moraianu, visual artist / photographer / PhD-fellow and M. Florentin Sirbu, ceramicist / PhD-fellow (University of Arts, Bucharest) and Geir Harald Samuelsen. Gestures og Fire at Klosterøya is
a sub-project of Matter, Gesture and Soul.

Ocean Ears / The Ochre Workshop / Abalones (Haliotis)

(Postponed - Covid)

Group Project / Bergen / 2020 - 2022

The Ochre Workshop and The Abalone Toolkit are proposed as a co-creational process between archaeologists
Professors Dr. Christopher Henshilwood & Dr. Francesco D'Errico with their team at The Centre for early Sapience behaviour SapienCE (University of Bergen), archaeologist Petro Keene, and the artistst Geir Harald Samuelsen
& Elin T. Sørensen.

& Elin T. Sørensen.

Professors Dr. Christopher Henshilwood & Dr. Francesco D'Errico with their team at The Centre for early Sapience behaviour SapienCE (University of Bergen), archaeologist Petro Keene, and the artistst Geir Harald Samuelsen

& Elin T. Sørensen.

& Elin T. Sørensen.

The Ochre Workshop unfolds as a seminar led by Henshilwood and D'Errico with team, together with archaeologist Petro Keene. The Abalone Toolkit is a co-developed immersive installation artwork, inviting the public to interact with the abalone shells, ochre and other materials, led by Elin T. Sørensen. Research on the design of abalone settlement surfaces happen in collaboration with Professors Dr. Boris Valentin, 3-D experts Francois Bougnères and Ivar Kjellmo.

Both events will be part of the Matter, Gesture and Soul exhibition at The Natural History Museum in Bergen the summer 2021 and is proposed for a presentation to be included in The European Archaeologist Association (EAA) annual meeting in Budapest (conference postponed to the summer 2022).

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