As histories continue to loop, PODIUM will over a weekend transform into a happening and documentation space. Exactly 5 years after Under the Park took place as a nightly happening at Valkyrie metro station in Oslo, PODIUM hosts the launch of the project’s reader: NIGHT UNDER THE PARK, abook and film document, continuing the project somewhere between an echo of the night in 2021 and a living archive.

The reader extends Under the Park, a site-specific project that invited artists, thinkers, and audiences into a nightly séance of invocations. Held while train traffic was suspended from 00:30 to 04:00 on October 16, 2021, Valkyrie plass, a metro station in Oslo active from 1928 to 1985, was transformed into a temporary autonomous zone through a collective, orchestrated event. Awakening the transient, the underground site was activated through screen materials and acts that worked to counter dominant histories in order to build futures not founded upon dysfunctional pasts.

The night included contributions by EMMA WOLUKAU-WANAMBWA, JAN VERWOERT, DAHIR HUSSEIN (GLOBALDRAMA), LESIA VASYLCHENKO / NIKHIL VETTUKATTIL, IMRGARD EMMELHAINZ, KESIA HALVORSRUD / VALBORG FRØYSNES, ADAM KHALIL / NEW RED ORDER, and COLECTIVO LOS INGRÁVIDOS.

The project by Sara Eliassen, was developed and realised in collaboration with Fotogalleriet and its then artistic director Antonio Cataldo; Bo Krister Wallström, artist, and curator at Public Art Norway; Kristine Jærn Pilgaard, independent curator; Magnus Holmen, artist and project coordinator; Jan Verwoert, writer. Production team and documentation: Phillip Isaksen, lights; Jon Løvøen, set design; Ulf Carlsson, graphic design; catering by Njokobok; production assistants: Santiago Reyes Santiago, Lena-Marie Vida, Emilie Engkrog; Geir Wilhelm Røer, Oslo Sporveien liaison: Simen Ulvestad, still photographer.

Contributors to the book: Jan Verwoert, Dahir Hussein (GLOBALDRAMA), Lesia Vasylchenko / Nikhil Vettukattil, Irmgard Emmelhainz, Kesia Halvorsrud, Adam Khalil / New Red Order, Colectivo Los Ingrávidos, Gustav Elgin, Antonio Cataldo and Sara Eliassen. Edited by Gustav Elgin. Design by Ulf Carlsson. Archive scans and edits: Jonathan Hörberg Danzer, Miriam Myrstad and Chloe Elgie.

Film document: edited by Chelsea Knight, sound mix by Erlend Hogstad, color grading & finishing by Fredrik Harreschou, video documentation by Zirenia Esquivel, Richard Aall, Sana Khan Niazi, Alexander Brucki, media managing by Emilio Vela.

Extended launch funded by NBK & KORO. Book funded by KORO and Kulturrådet. Film document funded by KORO. The original event was funded by KORO with additional contributions from Oslo kommunes Vigelandsstipend; Fotogalleriet; Kunstnerassistentordningen, Arts Council Norway, and in part by Oslo National Academy of the Arts (KHiO) as the project was part of Eliassen’s PhD research project Mediating Uncertainties, conducted at the Academy of Fine Art, KHiO (2018–2023).