Sigbjørn bratlie

Sigbjørn Bratlie (b. 1973 in Oslo) is based in Bærum, Norway and in Gdynia, Poland, and works with video, performance and installation. There is a hermeneutic approach to contemporary culture at the basis of his art projects: Often, they are produced in an attempt to create order and linguistic meaning in various cultural phenomena.

Over the last seven years, his video works have revolved around the theme of language, – or more specifically, – foreign languages: As performance projects these videos are the end result of a process whereby the artist spends around one year teaching himself a (more or less useful) foreign language, and subsequently creates an art project in which he, – in a specific setting, – communicates with someone in this language. Many of these projects deal with situations where the access to meaning and mutual understanding is hampered by lack of vocabulary, misunderstandings, bad grammar or bad pronunciation.

His work in Rome is part of an on-going project dealing with the Somali language, and with Somali communities different places in Europe.