Caroline Bergvall
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Caroline Bergvall (born 1962) is a French-Norwegian poet who has lived in England since 1989. Her work includes the adaption of Old English and Old Norse texts into audio text and
sound art Sound art is an artistic activity in which sound is utilized as a primary Time-based media, time-based Artistic medium, medium or material. Like many genres of contemporary art, sound art may be interdisciplinary in nature, or be used in Cross-genr ...
performances.


Life and education

Born in
Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...
, Germany, Bergvall was raised in Switzerland, France and Norway as well as the United Kingdom and the United States. She studied as an undergraduate at the
Université de Paris III The Sorbonne Nouvelle University (, also known as Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3, Paris 3, Sorbonne Nouvelle and the Sorbonne) is a public liberal arts and humanities university in Paris, France. It is one of the inheritors of the hi ...
,
Sorbonne Nouvelle The Sorbonne Nouvelle University (, also known as Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3, Paris 3, Sorbonne Nouvelle and the Sorbonne) is a public liberal arts and humanities university in Paris, France. It is one of the inheritors of the hi ...
, and continued her studies at the
University of Warwick The University of Warwick ( ; abbreviated as ''Warw.'' in post-nominal letters) is a public research university on the outskirts of Coventry between the West Midlands and Warwickshire, England. The university was founded in 1965 as part of ...
and
Dartington College of Arts Dartington College of Arts was a specialist arts college located at Dartington Hall in the south-west of England, offering courses at degree and postgraduate level together with an arts research programme. It existed for a period of almost 50 ...
where she received her MPhil and PhD, respectively. From 1994 to 2000, Bergvall was director of performance writing at Dartington College of Arts. She has taught at
Cardiff University Cardiff University () is a public research university in Cardiff, Wales. It was established in 1883 as the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire and became a founding college of the University of Wales in 1893. It was renamed Unive ...
and
Bard College Bard College is a private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The campus overlooks the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains within the Hudson River Historic District ...
. She is currently Global Professorial Fellow in the School of English and Drama at
Queen Mary University of London Queen Mary University of London (QMUL, or informally QM, and formerly Queen Mary and Westfield College) is a public university, public research university in Mile End, East London, England. It is a member institution of the federal University ...
.


Performances and writing

Bergvall has developed audio texts and collaborative performances with
sound art Sound art is an artistic activity in which sound is utilized as a primary Time-based media, time-based Artistic medium, medium or material. Like many genres of contemporary art, sound art may be interdisciplinary in nature, or be used in Cross-genr ...
ists in Europe and North America. Her critical work is largely concerned with emerging forms of writing, plurilingual poetry and
mixed media In visual art, mixed media describes work of art, artwork in which more than one Art medium, medium or material has been employed. Assemblages, collages, and sculpture are three common examples of art using different List of art media, media. M ...
writing practices, in addition to Performance Writing. Bergvall's work often draws inspiration from and explores Old English and Old Norse sources. A review of 2011's ''Meddle English: New and Selected Texts'' in ''
The Brooklyn Rail ''The Brooklyn Rail'' is an American publication and platform for the arts, culture, humanities, and politics, based in Brooklyn, New York. It features in-depth critical essays, fiction, poetry, as well as interviews with artists, critics, and ...
'' noted that her essay "Middling English" urges readers and writers working with English to "excavate its fractured and fractious history." Eve Heisler, writing for
Asymptote In analytic geometry, an asymptote () of a curve is a line such that the distance between the curve and the line approaches zero as one or both of the ''x'' or ''y'' coordinates tends to infinity. In projective geometry and related contexts, ...
, summarised that "Bergvall’s projects often foreground the materiality of voice, its tics, spit, accent, errors". Installations with Ciaran Maher include ''Lidl Suga'' for TEXT Festival (2005) and ''Say: "Parsley"'' at the
Liverpool Biennial Liverpool Biennial is the largest international contemporary art festival in the United Kingdom. Since its launch in 1998, Liverpool Biennial has commissioned over 380 new artworks and presented work by over 530 artists from around the world. ...
(2004). Bergvall's work has also been shown at
Dia Art Foundation Dia Art Foundation is a nonprofit organization that initiates, supports, presents, and preserves art projects. It was established in 1974 by Philippa de Menil, the daughter of Houston arts patron Dominique de Menil and an heiress to the Schlumbe ...
,
Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...
, the
Serpentine Galleries The Serpentine Galleries are two contemporary art galleries in Kensington Gardens, Westminster, Greater London. Recently rebranded to just Serpentine, the organisation is split across Serpentine South, previously known as the Serpentine Galler ...
,
Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery in London, housing the United Kingdom's national collection of international Modern art, modern and contemporary art (created from or after 1900). It forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Live ...
, and the
Hammer Museum The Hammer Museum, which is affiliated with the University of California, Los Angeles, is an art museum and cultural center known for its artist-centric and progressive array of exhibitions and public programs. Founded in 1990 by the entrepreneur- ...
.


''Drift''

Bergvall's 'Drift' project is exemplary of how her work embraces multi-modality. 'Drift' was commissioned as a live voice performance in 2012 by Grü/Transtheatre, Geneva. Another version was performed by Bergvall at the 2013 Shorelines Literature Festival, Southend-on-sea, UK, and produced as video, voice, and music performances by Penned in the Margins across the UK in 2014. 'Drift' was published as a collection of text and prints by
Nightboat Books Nightboat Books is an American nonprofit literary press founded in 2004 and located in Brooklyn, New York. The press publishes poetry, fiction, essays, translations, and intergenre books. History The press was founded in 2004 by Kazim Ali and ...
in 2014. An exhibition drawing on various elements of the 'Drift' project, including electronic texts made in collaboration with Thomas Köppel, prints, sound, and a "digital, algorithmic collage", was shown at Callicoon Fine Arts, New York, in 2015. The titular poem of the 2014 Nightboat Books-published collection 'Drift' reinterprets the themes and language of the Old English elegy 'The Seafarer' to reimagine the so-called 'Left to Die' account of refugees crossing the Mediterranean sea, which was reported by Forensic Architecture at Goldsmiths University in 2011. According to a review in ''
Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...
'' May 2014, 'toys with the ancient and unfamiliar English', as Bergvall pays particular attention to Old Norse and Old English words and their etymologies, and conveying the experiences of lone voyagers.' ''Drift'''s feminist politics confront 'Europe's cultural and economic connection to the sea, charting a course from the Vikings, through colonialism, to contemporary slavery that puts prawns on our plates ..reminding us of our responsibility to each other and to the world'. In one passage of the printed text, Bergvall omits all vowels from her text followed by two pages of the letter 't'. The Poetry Review suggest that 'It's as though we’re losing sight of the poem in the fog—or as though severe weather has battered the text, which is breaking up and sinking like a shipwreck'. ''Drift'' was a 2017 winner of the
Society of Authors The Society of Authors (SoA) is a United Kingdom trade union for professional writers, illustrators and literary translators, founded in 1884 to protect the rights and further the interests of authors. Membership of the society is open to "anyon ...
' Cholmondeley Prize for poetry.


''Ragadawn''

Bergvall and ATLAS Arts began working on Ragadawn in 2016. Bergvall's collaborators for the project include composer
Gavin Bryars Richard Gavin Bryars (; born 16 January 1943) is an English composer and double bassist. He has worked in jazz, free improvisation, minimalism, Musical historicism, historicism, Avant-garde music, avant-garde, and experimental music. Early lif ...
, soprano Peyee Chen, musician
Verity Susman Verity Susman is an English songwriter, composer, singer and multi-instrumentalist. She is best known as a founding member and the frontwoman of the English indie rock band Electrelane. Music career Following classical piano, clarinet and sax ...
, and sound engineer Sam Grant. Ragadawn is a multimedia performance that explores ideas of multi-lingualism, migration, lost or disappearing languages, and how language and place intersect. It is performed with two live voices and recorded elements, outdoors, at dawn, which means the start and end times are location specific. It was premiered at the Festival de la Bâtie (
Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...
) and at the Estuary Festival (
Southend Southend-on-Sea (), commonly referred to as Southend (), is a coastal city and unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in south-eastern Essex, England. It lies on the nor ...
) in 2016. Performances include breakfast for all present, created with local community growers or faith groups. Ragadawn (Southend) took place at
Tilbury Docks The Port of Tilbury is a port located on the River Thames at Tilbury in Essex, England. It serves as the principal port for London, as well as being the main United Kingdom port for handling the importation of paper. There are extensive facili ...
Cruise Terminal on Sunday 18 September 2016, commencing at 6:38am. The site was significant to the themes of the performance as it was the location of the landing of the
Empire Windrush HMT ''Empire Windrush'' was a passenger motor ship that was launched in Germany in 1930 as the MV ''Monte Rosa''. She was built as an ocean liner for the German shipping company Hamburg Süd. They used the ship to carry German emigrants to Sou ...
ship in 1948. Ragadawn (Isle of Skye, 57.5º N) took place at
Sabhal Mòr Ostaig Sabhal Mòr Ostaig (; ) is a public higher education college situated in the Sleat peninsula in the south of the Isle of Skye, Scotland with an associate campus at Bowmore on the island of Islay. Sabhal Mòr is an independent Academic Part ...
on Saturday 25 August 2018, between 5:14am and 6:15am.


''Oh My Oh My''

In October 2017, Bergvall performed her pieces ''Oh My Oh My'' in the Great Hall of
King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public university, public research university in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV ...
for their Arts & Humanities Research Institute's annual Arts and Humanities Festival. Bergvall's spoken word was accompanied by trombonist Sarah Gail Brand and musician Bill Thompson. The description for the event provides a reflection on the work:


''Conference: After Attar''

''After Attar'' was a conversation presented by Bergvall at the
Whitstable Biennale Whitstable () is a town on the north coast of Kent, England, at the convergence of the The Swale, Swale and the Greater Thames Estuary, north of Canterbury and west of Herne Bay, Kent, Herne Bay. The town, formerly known as Whitstable-on-Se ...
, 2 June 2018, as 'stage one' of a larger project 'Sonic Atlas'. Bergvall brought together poet Shadi Angelina Bazeghi, sociolinguist Clyde Ancarno, poet and curator Cherry Smyth, medievalist David Wallace, ornithologist Geoff Sample, and artist
Adam Chodzko Adam Chodzko (born 1965) is a contemporary British artist, exhibiting internationally. His practice uses a wide range of media, including video, installation, photography, drawing, and performance. Early life and education Adam Chodzko was b ...
, in the Sea Cadets Hall at Whitstable, to discuss the movement of languages across time and space, how forms of poetry move, and the role of birds in the imagination across history: the conversation descended into everyone talking over one another and the noise of chattering birds. The title plays on '
The Conference of the Birds ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...
', a poem by
Attar of Nishapur Faridoddin Abu Hamed Mohammad Attar Nishapuri ( – c. 1221; ), better known by his pen-names Faridoddin () and ʿAttar of Nishapur (, Attar means apothecary), was a poet, theoretician of Sufism, and hagiographer from Nishapur who had an immense ...
, a medieval Persian poet, whose work was adapted by
Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer ( ; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for '' The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He ...
.


Residencies, fellowships, and accolades

2007-2010 -
Arts and Humanities Research Council The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), formerly Arts and Humanities Research Board (AHRB), is a British research council, established in 1998, supporting research and postgraduate study in the arts and humanities. History The Arts a ...
-funded Creative Writing Fellow at the
University of Southampton The University of Southampton (abbreviated as ''Soton'' in post-nominal letters) is a public university, public research university in Southampton, England. Southampton is a founding member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universit ...
. 2012-2013 - Judith E Wilson Drama and English Visiting Fellow at the
University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...
. 2014-2015 - Writer in Residence at the
Whitechapel Gallery The Whitechapel Gallery is a public art gallery in Whitechapel on the north side of Whitechapel High Street, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The original building, designed by Charles Harrison Townsend, opened in 1901 as one of the fi ...
, London. 2017 - winner of the inaugural 'Prix de l'année', 'for specific work particularly important in the field of non-book literature', of the 'Prix Littéraire Bernard Heidsieck-Centre Pompidou' created by the
Centre Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the (), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English and colloquially as Beaubourg, is a building complex in Paris, France. It was designed in the style of high-tech architecture by the architectural team of ...
and Fondazione Bonotto. 2017 - recipient of the
Society of Authors The Society of Authors (SoA) is a United Kingdom trade union for professional writers, illustrators and literary translators, founded in 1884 to protect the rights and further the interests of authors. Membership of the society is open to "anyon ...
'
Cholmondeley Award The Cholmondeley Awards ( ) are annual awards for poetry given by the Society of Authors in the United Kingdom. Awards honour distinguished poets, from a fund endowed by the Dowager Marchioness of Cholmondeley in 1966. Since 1991 the award has bee ...
for poetry, for ''Drift''.


Published works

*''Éclat'', Sound & Language, 1996, *''Fig: Goan Atom 2'', Salt, 2005, *''Middling English'', John Hansard Gallery, 2010, *''Meddle English: New and Selected Texts'', Nightboat Books, 2011, *''Drift'', Nightboat Books, 2014, *''Alisoun Sings'', Nightboat Books, 2019,


Fiction anthology

* ''I'll Drown My Book: Conceptual Writing by Women'', 2012,


References


External links

*
Caroline Bergvall at EPCCaroline Bergvall
''PennSound''
"Noping,"
Triple Canopy {{DEFAULTSORT:Bergvall, Caroline 1962 births Living people Academics of Cardiff University Academics of Queen Mary University of London Alumni of Dartington College of Arts Alumni of the University of Warwick Norwegian electronic literature writers English women poets French emigrants to England French people of Norwegian descent German people of French descent German people of Norwegian descent Norwegian emigrants to England Norwegian people of French descent Norwegian women poets Writers from Hamburg French electronic literature writers