Atopia comes from the Greek noun a-topon, which means without a place. The name describes the conceptual core of Atopia in addition to its special focus on film and video art.
Atopia is an experiment, a research project, a laboratory for film and video art, and a room for connections, collaborations, as well as confrontations.
Atopia was founded in June 2003 by the following four artists:
Michel Pavlou is a multi-media artist and filmaker whose work has been shown and distinguished since 1990, in numerous exhibitions and festivals worldwide. He is also lecturer in Visual Arts, curator and poet.
Born in Kavala (North Greece) in 1960, he moved to France in 1978.
He studied Economics at the University of Strasbourg and Visual Arts at the National (Higth) School of Fine Arts in Nancy.He lived and worked in Paris from 1986 to 1999 then in Oslo (Norway), where he founded in 2003 (with the artist and filmaker Farhad Kalantary) "Atopia", an Art Space dedicated to the moving image.
Since August 2007 he lives and works in Brussel and Oslo.
still from Exit, DV, B&W, sound, 2', 2006
Other artists become involved with Atopia periodically. Greg Pope worked with us in 2006-7, and Linn Lervik has been working with us since 2007, and Nina schjønsby since 2008.
Through its various projects Atopia has organized exhibitions, screenings, forums and seminars as well as publications, inside and outside of Norway. We have created a grass-roots network of artists surrounding Atopia and have become a base for information and advice for artists working with film and video in Norway.
During the past 6 years Atopia has developed into a professional center for film/video art in Oslo, and it is now an umbrella for several ongoing projects focused on artists’ film and video works.
Coordinator: Farhad Kalantary
Assistant and Project Leader for “Traffic” project: Linn Lervik
Project Leader for “Retrospective Exhibition” project: Nina schjønsby
with the Sponsorship of:
Billedkunstnernes Vederlagsfond Prosjektstøtte (2005)