Soft Protection, Textiles in War, Stiftelsen 3,14 januar 2016, og NKs årsutstilling, Hydrogenfabrikken september 2016 Soups&Stories, Dialogevent 1, Stiftelsen 3,14, oktober 2010 Soups&Stories, Dialogevent 1, Stiftelsen 3,14, oktober 2010 Culture Stops, neighbourhood project since 2012.   Katrine Meisfjord WEBPAGE: www.kmeisfjord.com Katrine Meisfjord (b.1966, Bergen) holds a BA in textile art (2007) and an MA in fine arts (2009) from Bergen National Academy of the Arts. She has previously worked as a nurse. In the last years she has been showing performances, installations and participatory dialogue based works in galleries (solo exhibitions in Soft Gallery, Rogaland Art Centre, Kunsthall 3.14, Galleri Puls), and in group exhibitions (Norwegian Association for Arts and Crafts annual exhibition, Visningsrommet USF, BGO1; KODE2, Norwegian Association for Arts and Crafts thematic exhibition; KODE1, Gallery Visningsrommet USF, Grieghallen; KHiB 100 year jubilee). In addition she has organized numerous community based art projects in Bergen and is now a guest artist with the dialogue based project Soups&Stories at Stiftelsen 3,14. As an artist I’ve chosen to focus on dialogue and participant based art. My focus is on intercultural meetings in local communities. I organize venues where people from different backgrounds gather to share their knowledge and experience. This involves the orchestration of collaborative encounters and intercultural conversations between members of the communities. I have explored a range of methods including dialogue based art, scenography, and performance in an effort to facilitate these events. I’m interested in finding new ways of meeting across difference to exchange experience and knowledge in multicultural communities. The projects take place in people’s homes, at galleries, museums and other public venues. The venues chosen are meant to support the theme of the gatherings: in people’s homes, which say something about the people who live there; in museums, where the stories may influence visitors’ interpretation of the items on display or in other public venues where the staging is meant to influence the atmosphere of the gathering. Engaging public interest and audience participation is key. Genre In my work I have used Grant Kester’s theories about dialogue based art, as described in his book Conversation Pieces: Community and Conversation in Modern Art, 2004. Kester states that ”art is to process models of how communication can succeed in society “. In his opinion the artist must facilitate dialogue and work site-specifically in order for art to be relevant and constructive within the context and society from which it originates. Esthetic values become less important as the artworks` function is to create dialogue. The artist`s role is that of a catalyst and the artist may, or may not, own the actual artwork, or solution to the problem the art project is addressing. Art’s role in society is to examine and evaluate topics that are otherwise not naturally discussed in other forums. MAIN PROJECTS 2015 – 2017 1. SOFT PROTECTION, TEXTILES IN WAR Performance based storytelling and dialogue project in cooperation with Hiwet Tesfaldet, Evin and Savas Boyraz The performance consists of two parts, a performance or happening, and a conversation with the audience. In the performance two women share their own stories about how they experienced years of fighting for their people’s rights and independence as guerrilla fighters. During the performance the audience is seated around an open space where the meeting between the two women is played out. After the performance we arrange a dialogue event with the audience, because we are curious to know which experience they have with freedom fighting, feminism and the use of textiles. The main aims of the project are • To bring people together across difference, and make them share experiences and stories. Together with the institution where we exhibit, we make an effort to get a mixed audience. • Listen to female soldier`s stories about war, which are seldom told. Deep into the stories also lies the struggle to be equal to men, both in combat and in government. • The stories are told through the use of textiles. Textiles as a material serves well to make people share their own stories, because it is a material tightly connected to our lives. 2. SOUPS&STORIES. Social and dialogue based project in cooperation with Gitte Sætre Soups and Stories, is a series of gatherings staged in public spaces. People from diverse groups are invited to share personal stories on pressing social issues. The project has lately developed towards public community dialogue events, sometimes with a personal story as the driving force. The Soups&Stories Project is a dialogue based art project introducing new forms of interaction and creating alternative forums for discussion about political topics, thereby gaining insights which differ from those of our media saturated society. Soups&Stories offers an approach and method to facilitate living with growing societal diversity, focusing on democracy, freedom of speech, tolerance and respect, - while eating soup together. We propose new forms of interaction and communication in today’s Europe: with its growing radicalisation, where people in power actively use propaganda to create enemy images. Dialogue methods are inspired by David Bohm, Helge Svare and different tools in The Art of Participatory leadership tradition. 3 CULTURE STOPS – Sharing Personal Stories in Each Other’s Homes An ongoing neighbourhood project in two neighbourhoods in Bergen; Bergenhus/Årstad, since 2012 and Fyllingsdalen/Laksevåg since 2016. Neighbours who didn`t previously know each other, meet at each other’s homes and tell each other personal stories based on the theme “A moment that changed my life”. The participants are of different ages, nationalities and cultural affiliation. Before each gathering we agree who will be sharing a story and the artist meet the story tellers prior to the actual event to coach them through their stories. One person or family invite the group to their home, one person cooks, and a third person tells a story.