Published by Bergen Kunsthall
In autumn 2020, the master research and design project “Explorations in Ocean Space” at the Bergen School of Architecture (BAS) investigated Vestland’s long and oscillating legacy of relations to the sea. This is an exemplary maritime region where contracts and exchanges have been forged with the ocean throughout history. However as one of the world’s most industrialised seas, the North Sea has been described as being virtually dead, while a bright future is envisioned for the burgeoning Blue Economy. “Vestland North Sea Blueprints” aims to capture these contradictions through spatial research from a range of perspectives in a newspaper format, seen as a potential atlas to introduce Bergen’s oceanic context in the exhibition at Bergen Kunsthall. It serves as a data backbone and a starting point for further exploration. How have human spaces and histories been entangled with the sea in the Bergen region and how do we assess the current situation? The research is organised around the five major maritime industries that have been vital to the local economy: fishing, oil and gas, shipping, tourism and renewable energy. But it also traces the global trajectories of these industries and how they have moulded space, culture, regimes of control and produced specific narratives. The project aimed to make a critical appraisal of Bergen’s relation to the sea, to reveal fault lines, disjunctions and to identify emerging spaces of renegotiation. Each section of the newspaper relates the most relevant findings in an individual way.
This newspaper was published by Bergen Kunsthall on the occasion of the exhibition “The Ocean”, 28 August – 31 October 2021, in collaboration with the research and design course “Explorations in Ocean Space II – Vestland North Sea Blueprints”, Bergen School of Architecture, Autumn 2020.
Curator: Axel Wieder (Bergen Kunsthall)
Teachers: Nancy Couling, Vibeke Jensen
Assistant: Julia Morrissey
Edition of 1500
Photo: Bergen Kunsthall / Thor Brødreskift
Photo: Bergen Kunsthall / Thor Brødreskift