MOTforestillinger
- platform for Art against occupation
MOTforestillinger (counterACT) is run by Marius Kolbenstvedt and Vibeke Harper, and is a platform for art against occupation.
We believe in the political power of art, collective struggle and solidarity, and collaborate with other artists who takes a human stand against violent power structures in general, zionist-ideology and Israels use of military force in particular, and who wants to join the cultural and non-violent struggle to end the occupation Palestine.
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MOTforestillinger supports the BDS-movement, and its call for a international boycot of Israel.
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Marius Kolbenstvedt
Playwright, director, actor, dramaturg, musician and producer. Studied at Nordic School of Theatre in Århus (90–93). Initiated the very first MOTforestillinger festival, in January 2015.
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Kolbenstvedt was one of the founders of the stage-collective De Utvalgte in 1994. From 2004, he continued as a consultant for the group.
Together with Nina Ossavy, he was the artistic leader of Fabula Rasa and Ossavy & Kolbenstvedt (until 2016).
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He is the artistic leader of the documentary-music-theatre collective FaktaMorgana, which he runs together with visual artist Ingebjørg Torgersen and composer Bjørn Bolstad Skjelbred.
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He has been part of several theatre perfomances, and has collaborated with artists such as; Pia Maria Roll, Eirik Raude, Frank Havrøy, Marius von der Fehr and Thomas Hildebrand.
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Kolbenstvedt is one of the founders of Concerned Artists Norway (CAN), and is part of the Norwegian Palestine committee's art- and culture group. In 2022 he was the editor of the book Naturtro, and a co-curator for CANs exhibition in Molde.
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https://www.mariuskolbenstvedt.work/
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Vibeke Harper
Artist, scenographer, writer, translator and producer. She's been co-producing MOTforestillinger since the second festival, in August 2015.
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Harper visited Palestine/Israel for the first time in 2008, and have since then had yearly stays there (apart from during the corona). She's had collaborations with artists, given workshops, had exhibitions, written travelingletters and articles for different Norwegian newspapers and mediaplatforms, as well as curated for MOTforestillinger.
She was the Norwegian representative in the artproject The Road to Jerusalem, by Khaled Hourani, and created the underproject Milestone Jerusalem:Norway (in Tromsø, Trondheim, Hell and Oslo, 2010–14).
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Harper has participated in several international art interventions and exhibitions, in cities such as Buenos Aires, Cairo, Bucharest.
In 2012/13 she did the project The Construction of: A Declaration of Dependence – a series of interventions in public space in Norway and Romania.
She's done scenography for a few theatre productions, such as Terje Nordbys Judasevangeliet (2017), and Krish Nigel Iyers Corruption – The Musical (2015) and Panamapanikk (2016).
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In 2018, Harper translated the palestinian author Atef Abu Saifs The Drone Eats With Me. A Diary from a City under Siege, into Norwegian.
She has also translated a number of text for MOTforestillinger.
She's part of the Norwegian Palestinecommittee's art- and culture group, member of NNFO, and a board member of the Palestinian theatre school for kids TAQS in Ramallah.
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