Natalie Seifert Eliassen - Alien Beitostølen

DEEP SEA ALIENS (2025)

Costume - performance - dance (20 min)

I believe fish-like aliens are living deep in the sea on our planet, Earth. They sometimes visit land through the bottomless portals “Saivo lakes”, which are holy lakes/swamps in Sami culture, where people from the underworld reside.

The aliens don't care about human norms. When they move or dance, nothing is right or wrong; sometimes they mimic other aliens in a fish-stream and sometimes they go solo. In the performance at Eker farm, Beitostølen, they have promised to nonverbally explain their life cycle, it´s apparently quite like a human life cycle, that's what they have most in common with us, they told me.

Performers: Leik Silvestrini, Hilda Kahra, Dani Mckenzie, Kaisla Kyyhkynen, Terhi Hart, Vilde Jensen and Natalie S. Eliassen

Composer: mckenzie

Leik Silvestrini (they/them) @tusenspor

Transgalactic Visitor, 2025

Durational performance intervention

When: The whole week + Saturday’s performance programme

A transgalactic visitor from a neighbouring galaxy has crossed the boundaries of time and space and ended up in Beitostølen. For a week the visitor is exploring this new realm, trying to learn the ways of society and the beings in it. The durational performance will take place throughout the whole week, with the experiences accumulating in a 20 min performance for Saturday’s event.

Leik will also host a performance workshop for children on Thursday and Friday with a goal to identify norms and build confidence to break them.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Leik is a queer non-binary Oslo-born and Helsinki-based performance- and visual artist; an observer, collector, feeler, doer and lover striving for warmth, trust, softness, openness and care in everything they do. They work like a mosquito, gently sucking the blood from everyday situations in order to feed bodies of work that incubate in the meeting between the fantastical and physical reality. Their work is relational, processual and playfully serious. They hold a BFA from Bergen Art Academy (2020) and an MFA of Time & Space Arts from the Fine Arts Academy of Helsinki (2024). They are one of the organizers of the autonomous DIY gallery Kiss my ARS in Helsinki and one of the engines behind PAU!'s Open Home Performance Festival.

ALIEN 2.0 BEITOSTØLEN, PRESSETEKST

ALIEN 2.0 Beitostølen, er en reisende utstilling og en rekke kunstneriske aktiviteter som finner sted på Eker gård 27.-30. august 2025.

Programmet består av 15 lokale og internasjonale kunstnere basert i Norden, som er på residency på Eker gård galleri fra mandag til søndag 25.8-31.8.25.

I utstillinga vises bl.a. skulpturer, installasjoner, video- og lydkunst, og det øvrige programmet inneholder maske-, radio- og performanceverksted for barn.

På lørdag åpnes en ny skulpturpark med tale fra Bjarne Budal, ordfører for Øystre Slidre kommune, performancekunst, samt maskeradefest med DJer.

Med programmet utforsker vi temaer som utenforskap, annerledesgjøring, konspirasjonsteorier, mytologi og alternative virkeligheter i samspill med lokalsamfunnene vi befinner oss i. Vi er aldri alene.

ARRANGØRER

Natalie Seifert Eliassen (prosjektleder for ALIEN) Vilde Jensen ( leder for Beitostølen Performancesti) & Anni Onsager (daglig leder for Eker gård galleri og Skulptursti)

MEDVIRKENDE KUNSTNERE

Qi Tan (CN/NO), Natalie Seifert Eliassen (NO), Boris Kourtoukov (CA/NO), Leik Silvestrini (NO/FI/IT), Jani Luoma (FI), Erin Sexton (CA/NO), Kaisla Kyyhkynen (FI), Hilda Kahra (FI), Daniella Mckenzie (FI), Terhi Hart (FI) Susanne Fernløf Arntzen (NO), Unnur Andrea Einarsdóttir aka. Apex Anima (IS), Malin Arnedotter Bengtsson (SE), Vilde Jensen (NO) Anni Onsager (NO)

Program for uka:

Onsdag 27.8: Vernissage av utstilling (video, installasjon, skulptur og lyd-verk)

Torsdag 28.8: Skolebesøk 1 av Lidar skole. Verksted i maskelaging, performancekunst & amatør-radio + guida tur i utstillinga

Fredag 29.8: Skolebesøk 2 av Ronde skole. Verksted i maskelaging, performancekunst & amatør-radio + guida tur i utstillinga

Lørdag 30.8:
12:00 Offisiell åpning av utstillingen, med familievennlig workshop program, maskelaging.
14:00 Tale fra ordføreren, galleristen og prosjektleder for Skulpturparken Anni og prosjektleder for Alien Natalie

14:50 Performanceprogram starter

16:00 Maskeradefest med DJ og Open Mic

Alien food, 2016-17

Sculptural installation. Expandable foam, glitter, acrylics, plastics

What aliens love to eat.

All photos on this site is taken by Jani Luoma

PARADE i skulpturstien og taler

Lørdag 30. september 2025

SKOLEBESØK, omvisning og workshopper

Omvisning i skulpturparken

Lunsj

Vilde Jensen

Dani introduserer sin installasjon.

Omvisning i skulpturparken

Omvisning i skulpturparken, Kaisla introduserer sine silke-malerier.

Boris sin interaktive VR-oplevelse

Maske-workshop

Vilde og Dani hjalp til i Erins Radioworkshop

Radio workshop med Erin Sexton

Leik i gul, forklarer en koreografi lek i PERFORMANCE-WORKSHOPEN

What thoughts do you have on the topic of ALIEN in relation to the context of Beitostølen? How does your work/practice/life relate to the alien?

When I was really depressed, I didn't feel like myself; I became like an alien version of the old me. It was like I suddenly were the opposite of what I normally was. I became shy and introverted, negative and couldn't even remember daily bike locker codes. It felt like I belonged to another planet. Mental health problems can make me look like an alien. I felt like a lonely outsider among colleagues and friends, but also as an outsider of my normal self-image.

I’m soon 32 years old and have been an outsider in several parts of my life. I grew up in poverty in a rich area. I was bullied for being penniless at school when I was around 11, for only owning two jeans and mostly wearing 10-year-old secondhand clothes, while most of my classmates had the latest fashion and expensive brands. It helped a bit to get hand-me-downs from a taller girl in the class and hang out with the other bullying victims. Since then, I have always been careful with being as inclusive as possible, inviting everyone to parties, talking to newcomers and so on. Because I knew how much it can help to reach out an arm from the inside, to someone who feels alienated /lonely on the outside.