Working with Temporary and
Relational Art in Public Spaces
Seminar
Tou, Stavanger, 4–5 June, 2026
How can participatory, temporary and site-specific art projects form new communities - and open up new ways of experiencing and inhabiting the city? What kinds of collaborations, artistic methods and working processes are needed to allow for experimentation and meaningful participation? And how can public administration and curatorial practice support projects that leave no permanent physical trace, yet still produce lasting experiences and impact?
Through presentations and discussions, the seminar explored how temporary, immaterial and relational art practices can create lasting traces – socially, sensorially and structurally – and how such practices can be developed within public frameworks. At the same time, the seminar addressed the concrete challenges of the field: How these practices are negotiated and realised within existing institutional, economic and bureaucratic conditions.
These questions were explored through contributions by artists, curators, municipalities and public agencies, sharing experiences from specific projects in Norway and internationally.
We were excited to welcome contributions by Truls Ramberg (Curator at KORO – Public Art Norway), Evgeny Goman (Curator and producer at Pikene på broen, curatorial collective), Sans façon (artist duo, GB/FR), Merete Røstad (artist and Associate Professor in Art and Public Space at Oslo National Academy of the Arts), Mathias Danbolt (Professor of Art History at the University of Copenhagen), Khanyisile Mbongwa (Curator of Art in the Public Realm at Amos Rex), Søssa Jørgensen and Geir Tore Holm (artist duo, NO) alongside a performance by Anna Ihle (NO).
The seminar was aimed at artists, curators, public art consultants and cultural workers in the public sector, as well as others working within the field of public art, and addressed key questions related to collaboration, processes and frameworks for temporary art in public space.
The seminar was part of the art programme The Places We Meet – Art in Public Spaces in Stavanger Municipality, presented in connection with Stavanger’s 900-year anniversary. It took place at Tou in collaboration with Stavanger kommune and was curated by Koffi & Højgaard.
Programme 4 June
11:30-12:00 Registration and coffee
12.00-12.30 Koffi & Højgaard: Notes on Embodied Curating in
The Places We Meet – Art in Public Spaces
12.35-13.15 KORO – Public Art Norway w. Truls Ramberg: Curating Socially Engaged
Art from within Public Institutions
13:15-13:25 Q&A with Truls Ramberg
13:30-14:00 Break
14:05-14:35 Pikene på broen w. Evgeny Goman: A Meeting Place on the Bridge
14:40-15:10 Sans façon: Artist presentation – How do I know if I’m dancing?
15:15-15:45 Anna Ihle: The Typographer (performance)
15:50-16:05 Break
16:10-16.50 Panel conversation with Koffi & Højgaard, Pikene på broen and Sans
façon, moderated by Sofie B. Ringstad
16:55-17:00 Thank you for today
17:00-20:00 Art Bar at Øst (Tou)
Programme 5 June
09:30-10:00 Registration and coffee
10:00-10:10 Welcome by Koffi & Højgaard
10:10-10:40 Stavanger Municipality w. Marie Midttun Skretting: From Policy to
Practice: Exploring Temporary Art in Public Space
10:55-11:45 Merete Røstad: Memorywork
11:50-12:30 Lunch break
12:35-13:05 Mathias Danbolt: Touching Monuments: Rituals, Interventions, and
Activism in Public Space
13:10-13:50 Khanyisile Mbongwa: There Is No Table For My Seat vol. IV
13:55-14:10 Break
14:15-14:45 Søssa Jørgensen & Geir Tore Holm: Artist presentation - Studies,
celebration and branching
14:50-15:30 Panel conversation with Merete Røstad, Khanyisile Mbongwa, Mathias
Danbolt, Søssa Jørgensen and Geir Tore Holm. Moderated by Sofie B.
Ringstad
15:35-15:45 Thank you for today