Martinka Bobrikova & Oscar De Carmen / About

Martinka Bobrikova & Oscar de Carmen

Working together as an artist duo since 2005. We both hold MFA from Nordic Sound Art programme and Malmo Art Academy, Sweden.

Since 2012 we run Nomad AIR, a Nomadic artist-in-residence program focuses on the notion of hospitality and the social relations between “host” and “guest” para-siting the infrastructure of other institutions. The project starts from the idea of looking over the dynamics, meaning, phenomena and processes of international artist residency programs. The main concept centres on human relationships created within the residency format, and us as artists intervening in this framework by acting as managers. Nomad Air raises physical spatiality within the sphere of off shoring with the intention to expand a narrative field beyond the standard homogenization of common artistic residencies.

In 2017, together with Linnea Larsson, we have co-funded the project / residency program Future Utopia Community Key which is dedicated to the activities in the rural village of Uddebo and the area. The objective is to respond to the specific needs of the local and social context belonging to a rural community committed to economic sustainability, where the inhabitants claim the defence of the intangible, of the pro-common. The Residence program is a collaborative agency, dedicated to new social bonding and community building. It’s a process-oriented platform with a cross-disciplinary approach.

In 2018, we began curating our first annual gathering, anti-symposium IECES (International Encounters of Community and Environmental Sociology, New forms of contemplation for a new society). The anti-symposium serves as a meeting place for participants to share in the exchange of experiences with the local community with the objective is of discussing the future of independent cultural frameworks, exploring the production of knowledge, and examining the possibility of non-hierarchical structures.

Also in 2018, we became members of Collection Collective , a prototypical art collection established, owned, and managed collectively by its members, including artists, curators, architects, designers, anthropologists, producers, lawyers and economists. Collection Collective functions as a tool for self-representation, rooted in exploring the tenets determining the current conditions for the production, presentation and consumption of culture and art.

In 2019, we joined the reshape project , where we are part of a group contributing to imagining, testing, and creating concrete, realistic, and sustainable solutions under the theme: “Transnational/post-national artistic practices: What framework and tools do artists working transnationally need and how to provide them”.

Since early 2020, together with Rodrigo Ghattas Perez we run The Union, newly created Oslo-based organization  &  artist-run mediation platform. One of the core missions of The Union is to explore new socio-political realities through digital and physical activism and creative-citizen movements: the impact of Covid-19 – for artists, activists, thinkers, and creative minds – and its aftermath, being one of the most urgent ones. The Union´s laid-back projects target power structures in institutions, triggering loosen-up critical reflections through the use of unconventional, domestic, and experiential practices. We work to create other valorization structures for art, life, and culture, and to reshape the publics’ interaction; to actively participate in the collective design of new forms of care, participation, and empowerment through the arts. Whilst we cultivate countercultures and creative-civil community engagement.

We have participated in several residencies or research stays such as ISCP in New York, SaSa Art Project in Cambodia, Jatiwangi Art Factory in Indonesia, Gudskul in Jakarta, AIR Krems, Sweet Home / Hablar en Arte / Curators Network in Madrid, Arctic Art Institute in Arkhangelsk, Seoul Art Space Geumcheon, HomeBase Saitama, KulturKontakt Austria, Nida art Colony in Lithuania, Latent Spaces in Singapore or MeetFactory in Prague. Our works were presented in venues and projects such as Trafo in Szczecin (2022); 3rd Lagos Biennale (2021); Schaubmarov Mlyn (Slovak National Gallery), Rogaland Kunstsenter in Stavanger (2020), Galerie Emila Filly in Usti nad Labem,  Tenthaus in Oslo (2019), 35M2 in Prague, Oksasenkatu11 in Helsinki, Hotdock project space in Bratislava, Galleri BOA, Oslo (2018); RAM Galleri, Oslo; 5th Odessa Biennale, Fotogalleriet, Oslo; Agrikultura Triennial, Malmo, SE; Greenlight District, Skien, NO; Seoul Art Space Geumcheon, Seoul, KR (2017); Saitama Triennial, JP; Nitra Gallery, SK; Akershus Kunstnersenter, Lillestrom, NO; Tranzit, Bratislava, SK (2016); 2nd Tbilisi Triennial, Tbilisi, GE; Prague Quadrennial, Prague, CZ; Babel Art Space in Trondheim, NO; Entrance Gallery in Prague, CZ (2015); Post-PopUp at CCA, Centre Contemporary Art Singapore, SG; Høstutstillingen, Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo, NO; ANX/ Atelier Nord in Oslo, NO; Skanes Konstforening, Malmo, SE; City Gallery Bratislava, SK (2014); Nitra Gallery, Nitra, SK; Karlin studio, Prague, CZ; Rake, Trondheim, NO (2013); Museum of Contemporary Art, Roskilde, DK; KURANT, Trømso, NO (2012); Singuhr, Berlin, DE (2011); Center of Contemporary Art – Tbilisi, Tbilisi, GE; Roda Sten, Gothenburg, SE; City Museum, Gothenburg, SE; Space gallery, Bratislava, SK (2010).

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