Co-ritus by Susan Philipsz

For the duration of across, with, nearby, a series of co-ritus events will unfold across four Thursday evenings alongside the Gruppe66 exhibition at the Bergen Kunsthall. The first artist to engage with the concept of co-ritus is Susan Philipsz; an encounter you can partake in at the Kunsthall on 11 September at 17:00.

Co-ritus is an improvisational and process-based approach to collective art making that was introduced in Bergen in 1966 via the Scandinavian avant-garde and Situationists who formed or collaborated with Gruppe 66. The artists in Gruppe 66 explored participatory strategies of being and making together. Co-ritus challenged conventional roles of authorship and spectatorship, proposing the artwork as a live, communal situation, rather than a fixed object.

This new programme of co-ritus events is inspired by the practice of Gruppe 66. It does so not to look back with nostalgia, but to look forward and engage with a view to the present and the future. Cooperation and interaction with the audience are central to these co-ritus acts. The invited artists and collectives engage in process-based practices over the span of one evening, with durational traces that are shaped by encounter and sharing rather than showing. Whether material, spatial, or affective, these traces remain within the exhibition. In this way, the context in which the historical works are presented continues to shift and evolve.

Make sure to also pay a visit to Susan Philipsz’ work Slow Fresh Fount (2021), which can be experienced in the silo chambers of Bergen School of Architecture.

Susan Philipsz (b. 1965, Glasgow) is an artist whose work explores the emotional and psychological resonances of sound, as well as its spatial qualities — its sculptural dimension and relationship to architecture — and its potential as a tool to alter individual consciousness. Frequently employing recordings of her own voice, and drawing on a diverse range of musical sources from the 16th century to the present, Philipsz uses sound in public spaces as a means to trigger a heightened awareness in listeners, temporarily changing their perception of themselves in specific places and moments in time. Susan Philipsz has held solo exhibitions at venues worldwide, including Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (2014); Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC (2016); and ARoS Aarhus Art Museum (2023). She received the Turner Prize in 2010 and was awarded an OBE in 2014 for services to British art. Susan Philipsz lives and works in Berlin