UPDATES. December 2025

During a period of intensive activities and travel, there has been a lag on updating information about ongoing projects, so this is something of an overview. Scroll down for some more recent posts.

The research project Poetics of Space, initiated and led by Michael Francis Duch, is coming to the end of its development and production phase. In 2026 comprehensive documentation of the project will be published on several platforms and in book form. A summing up/presentation with panel discussion, screening and concert will take place at Trondheim Cinematek on 10th. December. A recent production workshop in Venice, featuring contemporary ensemble Lemur, is documented here.

A major event in the second half of the year was moving into a new studio space at STUDIO E39 in Eidsvåg, Bergen. This will be my base for the next few years.

As well as working studios, the facility includes a large common area for events. The most recent of these was the one day art sale DUST OFF! which attracted a large public and generated significant sales of artists' work, both by artists who have studios at E39, and others from the Bergen art scene.

Below, some photographs from DUST OFF!

2026 upcoming:  from May to August I will be exhibiting together with Kari Dyrdal (textiles) and Jon Arne Mogstad (painting) at the art museum Kabuso in Øystese, Hardanger. For the show I will be creating new works in video, digital print and silk screen print. As with this year's exhibitions of print work, I'll be producing at Forening Trykkeriet in Bergen, a brilliant facility for fine art print.

Main entrance to STUDIO E39

Evolution: new studio, before and after. STUDIO E39.

My biggest news of 2025 was establishing a new studio as part of the project Studio E39 in Eidsvåg, Bergen. 13 studios and a large common area are housed in a wing of the former industrial building Eidsvåg Fabrikker. As well as individual work spaces housing artists, designers, architects and craft workers, used on a weekly basis, there is a programme of events including pop-up exhibitions, open studios and art sales. The November 2025 art sale DUST OFF! was a successful event attracting a large public and generating many sales of artists' works. Project leader Oda Tungodden secured the premises and is the brain behind DUST OFF! and other initiatives that will make E39 an important location on the art map of Western Norway.

Below are photos, before and after, of the new studio I have established. I hope this will be my working base for several years to come! For the first time in over a decade I have a studio big enough to test out larger projects and installations.

The room was formerly a small gym

This part of the building had been a trade school

After the trade school moved it was a day centre for people with disabilities

With a large floor area and high ceilings it will be a good space to work in

A bonus is a direct view to the fjord and marina outside, through big windows

Starting to set up the work space. Storage is essential!

I have designed it to have areas for different activities including video/sound editing
work with print projects, and space for exhibition development

It is important to keep the larger part of the space open and flexible

After painting and some minor repairs to wall surfaces, ready to start moving in

A lot of equipment, materials and older projects have been in storage for about 15 years
and now all of this is accessible again

With good help from my teenage grandson I completed the install in a short time

Testing video from the project Poetics of Space, which has been one of my main
concerns this year. Here from a concert with SITron (Trondheim Sinfonietta) in a road tunnel
at Byåsen, Trondheim.

STUDIO E39, common entrance.

Poetics of Space, autumn 2025

The artistic research project Poetics of Space, led by Michael Francis Duch at NTNU, continued in October with a workshop/residency in Venice, on the former fortress island of Sant' Andrea. During the time on the island sound and video recordings were made, with a solo performance by Michael Francis Duch of a new work by American composer Michael Pisaro Liu, and site-specific improvisations for several locations by Norwegian contemporary ensemble Lemur.

Some of the results of this work are to be featured in an event at Trondheim Cinematheque on 10th. December, while documentation of the whole project will be completed in 2026 with online streaming of film/video work, texts and transcriptions of group discussions, sound recordings of performances and a book to be published in the first half year of 2026.

Photographs below from the recording sessions on Sant' Andrea. Video by Jeremy Welsh and audio recording by Asbjørn Tiller.

Poetics of Space at Trondheim Cinematek, Wednesday 10th. December.