Decolonizing the performing arts II: The gaze, colonialism and aesthetics – Oslo Internasjonale Teaterfestival

Live from Black Box teater, Store scene.

In her performance-lecture, Nunes invites the audience to examine the landscape of the gaze: How is our gaze shaped? Which narratives and underlying structures form the way we see things? Based on bell hook’s concept of the oppositional gaze, Nunes recreates the artistic, cultural and philosophical encounters that have shaped her gaze.

Following the performance-lecture, there will be an informal conversation between the audience, Nunes and Lisa Andrine Bernhoft-Sjødin, program curator at Nasjonalmuseet.

UPDATE: Due to personal reasons, Lisa Andrine Bernhoft-Sjødin is unfortunately unable to participate in the conversation. Instead, dancer and writer Grace Tabea Tenga will be joining Deise Nunes for the aftertalk.

Deise Faria Nunes is a researcher, performance practitioner and theater critic interested in interdisciplinary collaborations. Her work revolves around decolonizing art. Following her special interest in practical-theoretical investigations on ethnicity and gender within the arts field, Nunes established in 2017 the company Golden Mirrors Arts Norway, focusing on production and diffusion of works and thoughts by Black women in the arts and culture. Nunes is currently a PhD Research Fellow at the University in Agder, the Department of Visual Arts and Drama from 2019–2022 with the project “Estuaries: Decolonial, Feminist, Afro-diaspora Perspectives on Performance”.

Lisa Andrine Bernhoft-Sjødin is a writer, art mediator and curator. She also runs the platform ArtConstructs and is a contributor to Objektiv webjournal. ArtConstructs was created by Bernhoft-Sjødin to examine, through art, a language for a heterogenous future in Europe, beyond the constructed national state and identity. ArtConstructs will question how we consume art: whose narratives are being told? Are we aware of our own prejudice when we look at and deal with art? Which representational spaces are non-white artists restricted to? And how do these artists navigate and negotiate their own voices in this landscape? Bernhoft-Sjødin is currently a mediation curator at the Norwegian National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design.

Grace Tabea Tenga is a psychology student, African-aesthetic dancer, activist, feminist, writer and art critic.