Ingri Fiksdal as festival artist for the Bjørnson Festival 2026.

The two cultural institutions share a long-standing tradition of collaborating on a joint festival artist, and both are looking forward to presenting a brand-new exhibition work by Fiksdal in Molde. The exhibition has been created specifically for the festival and for the exhibition space at the Art Centre.

Originally from Molde, Fiksdal is currently enjoying a major international career and has received widespread acclaim for her choreographic work across a variety of contexts. This is the first time she has worked within a literary context. We are delighted that she has accepted our invitation and look forward to seeing the result in September.

The project she is developing is titled Full Contact. It will take the form of a choreographic installation and film, created in collaboration with artist Øyvind Aspen. The film features dancers whose movements range from gentle touch to high-impact combat. Here, the choreographic and the kinetic coexist and interact.

“I primarily work with the body and movement, and at a fundamental level the body can be understood as the basis of language. The philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty argued that the body is our primary encounter with the world. Before we think in words, we experience through the body. Language then emerges from these experiences,” says Ingri Fiksdal.

Exhibition opening: 2 September, 4:00 PM
Artist talk in the exhibition: 2 September, 7:00–8:00 PM

Ingri Fiksdal was born and raised in Molde and works as a choreographer based in Oslo. She holds a PhD in Artistic Research from the Oslo National Academy of the Arts (2019). Fiksdal approaches choreography as a format for speculative fiction—a starting point for speculation that can propose complex and multifaceted understandings of the body, gender, art, knowledge, and history. She is particularly interested in how practice and theory are woven together in her work, rather than one being derived from the other.

In recent years, Fiksdal’s work has been presented at venues including Dansens Hus and Kunstnernes Hus in Oslo, as well as at numerous international festivals, art institutions, and cultural venues such as The Bentway in Toronto, Obscene Festival in Seoul, Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels, Palais de Tokyo in Paris, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, alongside extensive touring throughout Norway.