High Response 3 - Tove Kommedal, and Anna Roos                                                                                                  back

A site specific art project in relation to Strandkaien in Stavanger, an area of contrasts. Here you

can find cruise ships, terror fences, prostitutes, a prestigious promenade, local and international

festivals - and sometimes – in weekdays, in normal hours - it is just empty, as if completely

forgotten even though it is placed literally 100 meters from the heart of the city centre.

A relational happening investigating women as a group. A personal meeting and temporary female

space created in the midst of public space.

What the artists defined as “12 ordinary women,” were invited to walk along the Blue Promenade from

Bjergsted to the city centre. The walk was followed by a 6 course meal served in the pavilion in Byparken

- the park behind the cathedral alongside Breiavatnet. The artists were hostesses serving, not participating

in the meal.

The idea was to bring together women of different backgrounds, ages and nationalities to investigate the

area in question and also investigate women as a group. The aim was to see how a group of women acted

in this setting, the setting being both potentially private and public.

The artists made a tablecloth specifically for this dinner party. With help from different women, they

embroidered a tablecloth full of associative words relating to the project in different ways. These words

served as starting points for the conversation taking place during the meal. The guests could also take their

own notes during the dinner in small notebooks sewn into the tablecloth. The artists will keep working with

the tablecloth, to see how they can exhibit it as an art piece in its own right. The cloth will play the part as a

fragmented storyteller, giving new audiences fragments, remains and memories from a moment past.

Tove Kommedal and Anna Roos wanted to create an event were the presence of women in public space is

the essence and driving force behind the project.

The twelwe guests:

Tove Guri Andersen

Anja Arnevik Andersen

Grethe Bekkevold

Isioma Daniel

Snøfrid H. Eiene

Line T. Frøyland

Sissel Knutsen Hegdal

Trude Syrtveit Jensen

Liv Torunn Meling

Anita Westmoen Plener

Hanne Haugli Sandnes

Lene Aareskjold

Other participants 6th of september:

Kristian Lundsten, chef

Lene Jeanette Wannberg, chef

Ingrid Tjemsland, guide and historian

Alain Fassotte, photographer, culture contact the Norwegian church.

Sesella F. Knutsvik, art mediator

Torunn Larsen, art mediator