Artist talk, 8 minutes.

Performance, 10 minutes.

The 29th and 30th of November 2019.

ROM for kunst og arkitektur, Oslo.

PAO FESTIVAL 2019. No silence / No sound – How to hear a performance,

organized by Performance Art Oslo.

​

//

​

In the book PAO 7 YEARS, published by Performance Art Oslo in 2021, there are some words about my participation in the PAO Festival 2019, written by Lars Elton in his text The meaning of it all. Here are a couple of extracts from page 392:

 

”...one artist stood out. Johanna Zwaig grabs everyone’s attention, even as she stands still as a stone, hardly moving. Both her voice and her intensity are poignant and powerful. The story she tells is important, and she projects it emphatically and with intensity. Her performances are gripping, with her artist talk on flamenco songs, and her performance of ”Le déserteur” on Sunday (better known as ”Monsieur le Président”, written in 1954 by the French author and musician Boris Vian) being equally effectful. This remain the most profound experience I had at the PAO Festival 2019.

(...)

...I was left in no doubt that Johanna Zwaig had understood one of the other sentences from the pamphlet I was given at the start of the festival. The sentence was as follows: ”The more you risk, the more you get.” Her performance showed an artist who put the content and form of her performance before the presentation of her own ego. By standing so very still, she risked her own credibility. She saved it by filling the room with an enormous intensity that balanced the great range of expressions at the festival, and that sent us on our way into the autumn darkness, believing in the great power of dedication. That is performance art at its best.”

​

//

​

Click here for an interview with me, published at the PAO website in connection with the festival.

​

//

​

Photo 1-3 of artist talk: Monika Deimling

Photo 4-11 of performance: Bjarte Bjørkum

Photo 12: Drawing by Päivi Laakso, inspired by my performance.