artist
Maia Urstad
Norway
Maia Urstad is a visual artist who has been working with sound art since the early 1980s. Through site-specific sound works and installations, she sends signals out into the world and draws connections backward in history and forward in time. She utilises found sound material as a starting point for composition, and reflects on various aspects of contemporary technology and the soundscapes, traces and stories we leave behind when new inventions enter our everyday lives. She often looks at moments in history when a technology is on the verge of obsolescence.
Recent works have been presented at Kunstnernes Hus, Atelier Nord during the Ultima Oslo Contemporary Music Festival, Oslo Art Association, XIV Biennial of Media Art in Santiago de Chile, Kunstlerhaus Bethanien Berlin, Kunsthuset Kabuso, Bergen Kunsthall, Borealis Festival, Struer Tracks, Sonic Acts and Borderline Festival.
Urstad was awarded the Rune Brynestad Memorial Grant in 2019, her work MURMUR was acquired by the Norwegian National Museum in 2020, and in 2017 she was appointed City Sound Artist in Bonn. Urstad lives and works in Bergen, Norway.
Maia Urstad
In The Unlikely Event of… , 2025
Shed (2X2m) placed on a field with a view, bench, multi-channel sound, speakers, amplifiers, playback device, audio recording of safety information from boats, trains and airplanes, ambient sound from travel
Dimensions: variable
In a shed on a bench overlooking the fjord, we are surrounded by a site-specific sound work in which the safety information we receive as travelers is a primary sound source. Seductive voices over loudspeakers serve up information about unlikely dangers and emergency procedures if something, against all odds, goes wrong. One snap, and life changes course.
The work brings the world into the shed at the heart of the Alby cultural landscape, here, now, before, soon. The shed’s view offers space for imaginary travel, as far as the eye can see and further; over the fjord, across the ocean to another continent, a railway station in Alaska, a big city in Ethiopia, a bullet train in Japan, and on and on.
For your safety, if you have to jump from a high altitude, push the life jacket down with your hands. Our crew members are highly trained and can assure you a pleasant and safe journey. And do not smoke in bed.
