31/12/2023
Madstun 2023 in retrospect
Our first visitor in february was Sergey Onichenko aka "Make like a tree", a Ukrainian music maker on a tour of residencies around Europe, while his country was ravaged by war. His visit culminated with concerts in Hov (with Mattis Myrland and Jon Balke) and Oslo, and the release of the track Meditiation for monday #67.
He tipped us about the organisation Artists at Risk, who looks for and connects residencies for artists escaping war and dangerous conditions. We contacted them and offered our space to their clients.
As a result Boghdana Patsiuk, Veronika Cherednychenko and Margo Reznik arrived in may (see posts below) and installed themselves for a two month visit, including an open studio day at Madstun and participation in various local art events. Veronika is now back in Kyiv, having given birth to her first child, and Bogdana and Margo in different residencies in Europe.
Hedvig Mollestad Thomassen took over in july, in a residency composing and preparing her various concerts as Artist in Residency at Molde Int Jazz Festival
Dancer / choreographer Sudesh Adhana came in august , using the outdoor space of Madstun for research into the performance Dryades and Oreiades, involving visual artist Anna Widén and dancers Martine Bentzen and Ole Snulf Marius Støle. The play involves a look at communication with nature and animals, and the horses grazing at Madstun were key collaborators. First performance in 2024.
9 august we were hit hard by "Hans", an immense biblical downpour of rain that came in from the east and flooded the rivers and took away most of the road up to the house. No major damage to the buildings, luckily!
End of august we were visited by a group of British artists: Fiona Crisp, Carl von Weiler, Stefan Gec, Liadin Cooke, Brigid MacLeer, and Rob Halloway, on a tour to visit and research norwegian art and history.
In October the Slovakian "Ninja" film crew, led by Michaela Kaliská invaded Madstun for a three days stay, working on the music documentary of Milos Valent´s project "One Music" which was initiated in Bratislava in may.
In november the music collective Parallax took over, recording their next album: Are Lothe Kolbeinsen, Ulrik Ibsen Thorsrud, and Torstein Lavik Larsen, as well as sound producer Fritjof Lindemann.
And in between all this, the ongoing works of Jon Balke and Tone Myskja has been developing :
Jon: Composing for a new solo piano album for ECM records, music technology studies including programming for the Osmose synth by ExpressivE, composing for the contemporary Traktor chamber groupas well as developing Song Cycle with Mattis Myrland, a recording project for release in 2024. And composing/recording the soundtrack for the Ritmo institute film "A world of Rhythm"
Tone: costumes for the Querini opera performance in Venice, developing the visual design for Farvann, the stage performance by Queendom, and designing costumes for Trondheim Voices performance Bedrock
We planted three walnut trees in 2023 hoping they will survive this freezing winter:-)
