title:
Visitors Portraits 
(Live-action, instruction-based score and installation)
This project is developed in collaboration with Belen Santillan


 
In our actual context, higher education is facing significant challenges, like budget cuts and the possibility of tuition fees for non-European students. Therefore, more barriers to access are created. The intervention ‘Visitors’ Portraits’ is a political-poetical statement, thinking about gates and gatekeeping. Though the doors of higher education institutions are open, what keeps many from entering? Through a combination of questions that can portray a visitor’s imaginary about a situated art field (a specific art school, the access to culture and education in a context), we made an intervention-action in our current institution, Oslo National Academy of the Arts, during its Open Day to Visitors 2022. Henriksen Schia and Santillán will connect with participants, offering them a portrait, and share a conversation about their relationship with the place, including their thoughts about access to higher education and the future they envision for themselves and the university.

Questions we asked

• What was your first contact with art?
• What brought you here?
• Who do you think has access to higher art education?
• What is your wish for the future of this institution?

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