Unni Gjertsen
Unni Gjertsen is a visual artist, filmmaker and writer based in Oslo. How we perceive geography and history, is a recurrent interest explored through her work. She often employs an ecological- as well as a feminist perspective in her practice.
Most recently her work was shown at Vega Kino, Oslo 2023. Gjertsen has exhibited at GIBCA Gothenburg International Biennial for Contemporary Art, Kunstnernes hus Oslo, Bodø Biennale, Museo de Arte de Lima, Museum for Contemporary Art, Roskilde, Malmö Art Museum, Nordische Botschaften, Berlin, Henie Onstad Art Center, MuHKA Antwerp and Konsthall c Stockholm. She has been an artist in residence at Mitte Berlin, Platform China Beijing and CoLab Art & Architecture in Bangalore and IASPIS in Stockholm. In 2020 an excerpt from her novel-in-progress, was included in Signaler, the Cappelen Damm debutant anthology.
Unni Gjertsen graduated from Trondheim Academy of Fine Art NTNU in 1997. From 2016-2017 she studied Creative Writing at The Norwegian Arctic University in Tromsø. She has been teaching at several art academies in Norway, latest at Art and Public Space at Oslo National Academy of The Arts 2017-2018. She was part of the Norwegian Artist’s Grants Committee for 2022.
Synopsis:
More Bacteria Than I
Marit lives on a small farm in Sweden where she uses ecological principles and aims for sustainability on a personal level, meanwhile she discovers a global perspective to humans relation with the soil. She is a TV journalist suffering from burn out, and diagnosed with post-traumatic stress. For her, it is important to retrieve her health. The microorganisms in the compost are “the brain” in the lifecycle on the farm. The body, the house and the earth, with all their microorganisms, are the theme of the film. A dimension of violence against the body and overstepping of personal boundaries, and violence against the soil in conventional agriculture, is revealed during the process. Marit’s development of a sustainable way of life, is an attempt to solve personal problems, at the same time, it is a solution to global problems concerning management of resource, ethics and the environment.