Ptarmigan operated in Tallinn from 2011-2014. We no longer maintain any presence in Tallinn, but this website will continue to serve as an archive of the activities produced at Ptarmigan during these years.
Sigbjørn Bratlie is a Norwegian artist working with installation, painting, video and performance. His art practice has a conceptual and analytical undertone, and humour is an important part of it. The concept of language is also central to his work. Influenced by popular culture, his work is about the production of art works in the midst of an overwhelming flow of TV, movies, pop music, advertising, fashion and cartoons. His art pieces are often “filtered” through one or several layers of pop cultural references, but are ultimately about the search for a voice, both artistically and personally. There is also an underlying hermeneutic element in his work: An emphasis on language, semiotics and interpretation, and an urge to find meaning in cultural phenomena.
A key ingredient in his way of working is what he likes to call «the artist as anti-hero» – i.e. – the artist who desperately tries to create profound, deep-felt and groundbreaking work, but who usually fails miserably. This strategy accounts for a lot of the humour in his work.
For his 2-month stay at Ptarmigan, Sigbjørn Bratlie has taken it upon himself to learn the Estonian language, go see an Estonian shrink, and sort out all his emotional and psychological issues. His art project will be based in video and performance, and will deal with communication in a foreign language: Situations where access to meaning and understanding is greatly limited because of language problems.