NŌUA

A contemporary photography space run by artists

Bodø is a city that’s growing fast and increasingly receiving international attention. Since 2017, NŌUA has been one of the brands driving this change. We sat down with Marianne Bjørnmyr and Dan Mariner, NŌUA’s directors and photographers themselves, to hear their story.

Images / Marianne Bjørnmyr and Dan Mariner Words / Rigmor Reppen Solnes

In a former post-war culture house in central Bodø, spread over 300 square metres across three floors, you’ll find NŌUA. Run by photographers, Marianne Bjørnmyr and Dan Mariner, who moved to Bodø from London in 2016, NŌUA is an arena for photography as contemporary art—hosting exhibitions, seminars, and artist discussions. But it’s a space that’s in continuous transition.

“Right now, the main goal is to further develop the place in preparation for 2024, when Bodø will be the European Capital of Culture,” Marianne explains when we speak to them both. “And right now, things are changing fast.”

Bodø’s European Capital of Culture project is known as ARCTICulation and its aim is to show Nordland in all its abundant glory to people who think it’s simply a dark land of snow and ice. The year’s central themes will include The Art of Nature, from an Arctic perspective, Fish and Ships, and—appropriately for NŌUA—Transition.

“We have an ambitious programme in preparation for 2024, and our priority will be to secure a steady operation and place in NŌUA”, says Dan, a British photographer whose own work has appeared in the likes of Lobby Magazine, Financial Times, and Klassekampen.

“But in the long term, it is our main goal to have more international and Norwegian artists visiting both Bodø and NŌUA”.

Since Dan and Marianne established the space in 2017, NŌUA has been very busy indeed—bringing to Northern Norway some of the most challenging names in contemporary art.

In autumn of 2021, for example, NŌUA held an art show called Power & Paper, which saw three principal artists— Michal BarOr, Clare Strand and Samuel Henne—showcase their photography, hold seminars, host exhibitions and film screenings, and bring together the work for a publication with curators and writers.

This was, in Marianne’s words, a “milestone” for NOUA— as the event was the opening show of their extended exhibition space.

The event revolved around themes of officially documented history, individual relationships to memory and history, and concepts of manipulation and authenticity. It was curated by the Hong Kong-based artist Francesca Marcaccio, previously of the British Museum, while writers Diane Smyth, Karen McQuaid, and Maria Lyngstad Willassen reflected on the power artists have to create alternative realities and lead audiences into new realities.

One of the best things about the show, Marianne and Dan suggest, was how well it went down with the people of Bodø.

“The local interest in photographic art amongst the public is high—and everyone here is just really inclusive and welcoming. We’re incredibly happy about that”, Marianne says.

“But we also want our own space to be inclusive, available, free, and easy—while at the same time being a place that showcases photographic art of high quality from around the world. That’s exactly what we want people to think of when they hear the name NŌUA.”

Marianne and Dan are not just curators, but practicing artists in their own right. Dan, who studied Documentary Photography at Newport University in Wales, explores the interaction of infrastructure, ideology, and nature in his work. Meanwhile, Marianne trained at the London College of Communication and has been exploring themes of authenticity, communication, documentation, and evidence through her research-based photography.

Yet for their work with NŌUA, their greatest asset is perhaps their large network of international artists and photographers. And now that the gallery also enjoys the support from the Norwegian Kulturrådet, Arts Council Norway, they may be one of Bodø’s greatest assets too—for 2024 and beyond.

“The local interest in photographic art amongst the public is high—and everyone here is just really inclusive and welcoming. We’re incredibly happy about that”.

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