observations

SURFACE TENSION

For the 3rd edition of _Seaside_Picnic we have invited artists to reflect, contemplate, meditate on, or if they please - completely disregard, the phenomenon of Surface Tension.

The idea for the theme was derived from a paper by an aspiring young scientist, Leo Holtan Bøckman, explaining the topic with an impeccable simplicity and elegance. Clearly and crystalline he explains it: “Surface tension is a phenomenon that appears in the transition between liquid and gas. As a result of the intermolecular forces in the liquid, a hymen will develop on the liquid's surface”. The inner atomic magnetism of the liquid molecular structure keeps it self-contained, whether it is in the shape of an ocean, a lake or a single drop.

The concept quickly lent itself as a fitting metaphor for the current state of the project. Surface Tension is the skin of the ocean. The skin is the surface tension that marks the division of the inner and outer worlds. The surface as a liminal field. Perhaps through our identification with this ever fluctuating hymen between gas and liquid, ourselves and our Others, we can find our access into the Molecular Revolution, our battleground of microsubversions at the intersection between the personal and the public.

_Seaside_Picnic manifested for the first time in 2018, and again in 2019, out of an international network of artists and musicians, representing a global underground. Out of disparate geographical and political situations these artists question issues surrounding ecology and technology, biopolitics and existential matters in the face of an ocean of futurity. Here, our actions affect dimensions that are temporal, spacial and metaphysical, spanning from an interpersonal immediacy to the incomprehensible proportions of deep time, and beyond.

After a year of introversion, for reasons that do not require further explanation, it is with a sense of optimism and hope we once again encounter the public sphere, reaching towards the surface, reborn like the first plant-cells on the verge of emergency from the primordial soup.

Still we are not searching for any sense of bursting or breaking through, but rather approaching with great care the intensity of the edge of the sphere that separates potentiality and the real.

The motif of the Xeno-entity, the alien life-form (or formlessness), has from the conception of _Seaside_Picnic recurred as as a mythological frame set for the curatorial project, allowing all of us involved, artists, organizers and audience, to collectively define our own community of post-globalized outsiders. And although the pandemic situation has challenged us to focus on deepening and solidifying local bonds, our programming of _Artifacts and _Transmissions reflect this as through a liquid mirror, as we enter the Zone, at the edge of the water, a state between states, _Seaside_Picnic.

«The mirror reveals everything, the stone nothing. As stone and mirror, is what you most want to know.» -Tor Ulven

With our deepest gratitude, welcome! Snorre Sjønøst Henriksen Artistic Director

SEASIDE PICNIC IS :

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: SNORRE SJØNØST HENRIKSEN ADMINISTRATIVE DIRECTOR: JOSTEIN WÅLENGEN DESIGNER: KRISTEN STOKES SOUND ENGINEER: CHRISTIAN OBERMAYER CONCEPTUAL CONSULTANTS: LEO HOLTAN BØCKMAN + HEIDI KARLSEN CURATORS’ ASSISTANT: CHRISTOFFER DANIELSEN DALEN A/V ENGINEER: GARD GITLESTAD

Special thanks to Lene Ulven, for the use of Tor Ulven’s poetry on the memorial page. Thanks to: Anniken, Arnt Christian, Omer, Billy, Ann Charlotte, Anne Gerd, Ida, Gro, Harald, May, Torbjørn, Ingvild, Torodd and Bamble Municipal Cultural Department, Mom, Dad and everyone who has contributed to the constant creation of _Seaside_Picnic, from its conception and to this day. Supported by KulturrÅdet (Norwegian Cultural Council)