AN oil adventure
'Ig was daar after di werlt haftet gefundet olie. Ig was ejn av di kinder di upgrowde med zwarte gould. Strieter was gefullt med olie. Overal hadden wi kanals waar det tikke zwarte substans blinkte in di sonskiejn.'
As a postmodern response to Asbjørnsen and Moe [1], The members of LIVESTOCK investigate their own role in present day Norway where the concept det norske oljeeventyret [2] for a long time has connected industry and politics with metaphors from Norwegian history, mythology and folklore. Names such as Troll [3], Frigg [5] and Ormen Lange [5] carry visual and emotional associations to something believed to be "true Norwegian", but are now adopted by the oil industry in the naming of oil- and gas fields. These new connections slowly bring the words into to a whole new field of meaning, but still carry with them the strong feeling of national identity. In these deep waters between myth and fact LIVESTOCK found its artistic voice. Blurring the borders between the big oil corporations and themselves they play with the same rhetoric strategies to front themselves as artistic pioneers. Fact and fiction, myth and own life experience blend in a poetic company presentation where the difference between oil and art isn't so important.
The performance is created and performed in collaboration with Karen Skog Orkester.
Karen Skog Orkester is the name of a visual art project where Karen Skog is building and playing wooden instruments constructed only from the knowledge of how an instrument looks, and with the means at hand. With her is Sivert Nicolai Nesbø and Erik Andreas Røkland as musicians.
2013
The first version of this performance has been created in 2011. In october 2013 Livestock continued their adventure and further developed this performance for Meteor festival, Bergen, Norway. We traded Hanna Barfod for Erik Ebert and collaborated with interdisciplinary performing artist Leo Preston.
Meteor Festival 2013
Stavanger & Bergen 2011
Notes:
[1] Det norske oljeeventyret: This is a well-known expression used to name the oil history of Norway. It can be translated as the Norwegian oil adventure or oil fairytale. [2] Asbjørnsen and Moe: Refers to Peter Christian Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Engebretsen Moe who collected Norwegian folklore in the 19th century. [3] Troll: Originally a supernatural being in Norse mythology and Scandinavian folklore. Now a natural gas and oil field in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea, 100 kilometers north-west of Bergen, Norway. [4] Frigg: Originally a major goddess in Norse paganism, she is said to be the wife of Odin and the queen of Asgard. Now a natural gas field in the North Sea on the boundary between the United Kingdom and Norway, the world's largest and deepest offshore gas field when discovered in 1971. [5] Ormen Lange: Originally one of the most famous Viking longships. Now a natural gas field on the Norwegian continental shelf situated 120 kilometers north-west of Kristiansund.