Knut Åsdam | The Long Gaze, The Short Gaze

Knut Åsdam, Artist and filmmaker

How, amidst continual changes in society and media and the shifting relationship between psychology and film spectatorship, can we deal with notions of site, space, society, and subjectivity within cinema today? What narrative devices can be used to explore the interplay between these notions in the moving image? Åsdam examines these questions within the context of his new film and installation projects that include border narratives between Russia and Norway, life in the edgelands of Oslo, and the narration of the uncanny in a never-completed exposition center in Lebanon.

Knut Åsdam is an artist and filmmaker whose work explores the subjectivity of social structures, history, language, struggle, and the body. His work also addresses the usage and perception of urban public spaces. Åsdam’s experimental use of narrative and dramaturgy moves between social discourse and hallucinatory disintegration. In addition to narrative film, Åsdam also works with photography and installation. His work has been recently exhibited at the Oslo National Museum, Tate Modern, Depo Istanbul, and Bergen Kunsthall. He is currently working on three film projects in Murmansk (Russia) and Kirkenes (Norway), the Grorud Valley in Oslo, and the Hebrides (Scotland).