A-FI-SA. But it might not be tomorrow

Generational memories and diasporic experiences in performance, image and sound.

For her solo exhibition at Oslo Kunstforening, Maritea Dæhlin has created the video installation A-FI-SA, filmed in Longyearbyen and San Cristóbal de las Casas in Chiapas, Mexico. The exhibition also includes a new series of analogue photographs on mirrors, as well as sound works. Together, these explore how ritual acts and the presence of the body in different landscapes can activate memory, play and possibilities for healing.

Through language, movement and a multichannel soundscape, A-FI-SA opens up reflections on experiences that are both personal and collective, revealing the complexity of belonging to the African diaspora.

A generational perspective, a recurring thread throughout Dæhlin's practice, is woven into the works. The artist, who has roots in Norway, Mexico and Cameroon and belongs to a third generation of artists, shares the stage with her daughter. Together, they create situations in which bodies and landscapes challenge familiar notions of identity and belonging along a north–south axis.

Want to know more?

• Maritea Dæhlin's exhibition grew out of Dæhlin's residency at Artica Svalbard in 2023, a series of dialogues with collaborators in Mexico and Svalbard, and the artist's long-term engagement with questions of identity, migration and multilingualism.
• The word afisa, repeated throughout the work, is drawn from the artist's own memory—an attempt to evoke connections to Medumba, a Bamiléké language spoken in Cameroon.
• The exhibition is produced by Oslo Kunstforening and runs from 27 August to 11 October, remaining on view until 11 October. In connection with the exhibition, Dæhlin will also present a performance programme entitled When I See You. I See a Garden. More information will be announced in August.