Gitte Sætre (b. 1975, Bergen, Norway) is a visual artist working at the intersection of art, politics, and civic society.
Her practice spans painting, video, performance, text, sound, and relational formats, shaped by a feminist perspective and a deep interest in ecological and social interdependence.
For over two decades, Sætre has explored themes related to war, peace, and what she describes as a culture of perception management. Her work engages with how societal structures are formed through conflict, competition, and the struggle for resources — and how art can open space for reflection, critique, and alternative imaginaries. In this context, her practice aligns with broader discourses on climate, power, and civil society, where questions of responsibility, care, and coexistence remain central.
Her work has been presented internationally at venues including the Nobel Peace Centre (Oslo), Manifesta 13, Kunstnernes Hus (Oslo), WhiteBox (New York), Kochi Biennale (India), Guramayne Art Centre (Addis Ababa), Oslo Kunstforening, Kunsthall 3.14 (Bergen), KODE Museum (Bergen), and others. She has also produced performances at the Nationaltheater in Bergen. In 2024, she realised a large-scale public Peace Fresco in Oslo under the name Fresco Sisters, in connection with the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Nihon Hidankyo. Sætre’s long-term project Woman Cleaning, initiated after a journey to Jerusalem in 2014, unfolds as a series of video performances in which she cleans sites and objects as a ritual act. The figure she constructs navigates between control and surrender, seeking to create meaning in a complex world. The work engages with feminism, politics, and ritual, while holding space for both humour and vulnerability.
In 2016, she created Magic of Seven, a seven-channel video installation featuring seven women from seven continents performing a shared ritual across a symbolic 7000-year history of violence. This exploration of collective memory and embodied knowledge continues to inform her later work.
In 2022, Sætre co-created the web-TV series Are You Ready?, a speculative and poetic project supported by a grant that funded investigations into the green transition. The series follows a resurrected tree — inspired by the landscape surrounding Ludwig Wittgenstein’s writing of Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus — which becomes a speaking, observing entity: The Living Unliving Surveillance Poet. Through this character, the project explores perspectives beyond the human, blending philosophy, ecology, and fiction.
Across her practice, Sætre investigates psychological and social structures through both intimate and collective lenses. Earlier works such as Mother Dust (Morstøv) focused on the domestic sphere, using collected household dust as material — a microscopic archive of daily life. Questions of guilt, care, freedom, and generational responsibility continue to run through her work, bridging personal experience and broader political realities.
Her ongoing project, Fresco Sisters, extends this inquiry into painting as a social and public form — moving beyond representation toward a language that engages directly with lived experience and shared space.
Gitte Sætre often collaborate with people and organisations inside and outside the field of art, below is a list of some of them.
Education:
2025: Course in Drawing Graphic Narratives at the Royal Drawing School, London
2024: Course in Drawing Portraits at the Royal Drawing School, London
2008-2010: Creative Curating, Bergen Art Academy, UiB
2007: Art in Public Space, KORO
2004-2004: Philosophy at the University of Bergen
1999-2000: TV production, Copenhagen
1997-1999: BA Fine Art, Universidad de las Américas, México
1996-1997: Computer Graphics. Aarhus, DK
1994-1995: Art Academy. Aarhus, DK
1990-1993: International Baccalaureate, Washington, DC
Solo Exhibitions:
2026 Kulturkirken, Geilo
2024 Peace Culture by the Fresco Sisters, Olav Vs Plass, Oslo
2023 USF Visningsrommet, Act 4: WAR, Bergen
2022 Gallery HøgStandard, Oslo
2022 Cosmology, Small Projects, Tromsø
2022 Rogaland Art Centre, a shorter pop-up
2016 Magic of Seven, Kunsthall 3.14, Bergen
2016 Woman Cleaning, Oslo Kunstforening
2015 The House of Foundation, Moss
2015 Gallery Basement, Voss
2014 Woman Cleaning National Identity, KABUSO (foajé), Øystese/Hardanger
Group Exhibitions:
2026 Arkitekt Trienalen, Oslo
2026 Imagine New Stories, Write New Rules, NITJA: Center for contemporary art. Curated by Jessica Williams and Monica Holmen. Lillestrøm/Norway
2025 EMPWRNG VOICES. Curated by Annicken Dedekam Råde, Gamle Munch Museet. Oslo
2025 Isotop, Bære eller Briste. Bergen
2025 CM7. Bergen
2024 Biennial Means Necessary II, Jane's Room, 78 Jane St, New York
2023 B-Open; Geopolitical landscapes with Frans Jacobi and Matthew Flintham. Bergen
2023 CM7. Bergen
2022 The Civil Defense; Akt 4: WAR, Visningsrommet USF Verftet. Bergen
2022 Woodoow, Galleria curator´s lab, Poznan. Poland
2021 Show:Agent Provocateur. At: The Empty Circle, Brooklyn, New York
2020 Nature as Infrastructure by The Winter Office, Adélaide and Atlantis within the frame of Manifesta 13 Les Paralléles du Sud; Marseille, France
2020 Future DiverCities, Bergen Kjøtt. Norway
2020 Are You Ready? Bergen Electronic Senter (BEK), Bergen
2020 Åpen Kunsthall, Oslo Kunsthall
2019 Nordic Contemporary Art Center. Xiamen, China
2019 On Movement, Guramayne Art Centre, Addis Ababa. Ethiopia
2018 Represented at the Fair Cosmoscow by the Gallery SUNDERØ, Russia
2017 Center for Future Art. Stavanger. Norway
2017 Galleri Blaker Skanse. Oslo, Norway
2017 Visningsrommet USF.Bergen-Norway
2016 Acts of Sedition I, WhiteBox. New York, USA
2016 INFERNO; Pristine Galerie. Monterrey, Mexico
2016 Kunstgarasjen.Bergen, Norway
2015 Beautiful Lies. Warszawa, Poland
2015 Videonale. Alvøen, Norway
2015 Komunitas Salihara. Jakarta, Indonesia
2015 B.C Gallery.Collateral Kochi Biennale.India
2014 Gallery Svend ́s Library.Copenhagen
2014 XX1 Gallery. Warsaw, Poland
2014 Lapidariet. Copenhagen, Denmark
2014 'Divorced', Bomuldsfabriken. Arendal, Norway
2014 Sky & Fjords (Himmel & Fjord). Hardanger, Norway
2014 Annual juried exhibition (Vestlandsutstillingen), Norway
2013 Odds "pop up" exhibition, Gallery Trykk: Trykk. Bergen, Norway
2013 'I have a pussy, what ́s your problem, Gallery KNIPSU. Bergen, Norway
2013 In which the smallest gesture becomes epic. Gallery Bergslien, Norway
2013 In which the smallest gesture becomes epic. Gallery Voss, Norway
2013 Gallery VOX, 30 x 30.Bergen,
2012 Banksmidja. Voss, Norway
2009 Salon. Alvøen, Norway
2008 400 meters arts.Voss
2008 Science Week. Bergen
2005 GalleryAl.Oslo , Norway
2000 Gallery Wendelbo. Bergen, Norway
1999 Universidad de las Américas, Puebla, México
1996 Aarhus Convention House. Aarhus, Danmark
1992 Norwegian female artists. Norwegian Embassy. Washington DC, USA
1991 Smithsonian Institute. Washington DC, USA
Work Experience:
2025 Vågsbunnen Stemmer, art in public space, Bergen
2025 Den Kulturelle skolesekken, Kunsthall 3,14, Bergen
2025 Workshop, Edward Munck Vgs, Oslo med utstilling på Gamle Edward Munch.
2024 Civil Defence. Akt 5: PeaceCulture, a frieze of peace by the Fresco-sisters, Oslo
2024 Workshop Nobel Peace Center, Oslo, through Oslo Kulturskole
2022- Podcast: “Dare to Hear”
2014- Debate Editor at Kunsthall 3,14 ( a 50% position)
2023: Scenography at Oslo Nye and Heddadagene (regi: Lena Sendstad)
2019-2021 TV series AreYouReady.tv with/ Frans Jacobi
2019 -2024 Artists group with Michelle Marie Letelier, Jannecke Heien and interdisciplinary guests.
2018-2022 Leader for Antiwar Initiative, Norway
2016- Debate editor at Kunsthall 3,14
2013-2015 InEpic (artist group)
2012-2016 Running the dialogue-based art project Soups&Stories v/ Katrine Meisfjord
2009-2011 Running the mobile art space Luftskipet, West Coast, Norway. SINTEF
2011-13 Kuratorsamvirket Radiator with Kjell-Erik Ruud & Bjørn Inge Follevaag
2003-2009 Established the artist-run showroom for contemporary art: KunstiBadet, Alvøen
Performance/Theater:
2022 Civil Defence: Act 3:The Commission for the Good Solutions, The National Theatre (DNS), Bergen
2021 Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo
2021 Voices of Pythia, Office of Emergency, Copenhagen
2020 Yesterday and today, the energy in the cosmos is extremely intense. BEK; The Latent City
2020 EU Parliament, Are You Ready, Brussels. Corona cancelled.
2019 Let us think. This performance followed the exhibition WeAreMillions.org and was performed at different venues in Berlin, Genova, Leipzig, Belgrade, Frankfurt, and Oslo.
2019 Are You Ready? A prologue, PAB-OPEN, Hotel Terminus
2019 Let us think, Media City Bergen
2019 DJ Roles&Positions at different clubs and events (Norway and Sweden)
2019 Are you Ready? Guramayne Art Center, Addis Ababa
2017 Civil Defence, Act 1:War Theater Trident Juncture, The National Theater (DNS) Bergen
2017. Green Hijab Movement, KODE, Bergen
Woman Cleaning Performances 2014-2024:
2024 Woman Cleaning Accumulation of Timeless Sorrow and Pain, International Waters (# 20 ).
2024 Woman Cleaning Groundwater Pollution, Tunis (# 19 )2021 Woman Cleaning Equinor, Fornebu (# 18) - a Global Army of Cleaners. Part of the Global Coastline Rebellion network.
2022 Woman Cleaning Salmon Farming; Do You Give a Shit? (# 17 ). Part of the campaign Global Salmon Farming Resistance.
2019 Woman Cleaning for a New Beginning, Belmarsh Prison, London ( # 16 )Part of the campaign Free Julian Assange and free to be used for the case with credits to the artist)
2019 Woman Cleaning Westminster Magistrates Court, London ( # 15 )
2019 Woman Cleaning Imperialism, Horn of Africa ( # 14 )
2017 Woman Cleaning Growth, A Walk of Penance from Oslo to Stavanger ( #1 3 )
2016 Woman Cleaning F-35, Bergen Kunsthall ( # 12 )
2016 Woman Cleaning Law & Order, Korskirken ( # 11 )
2016 Woman Cleaning Weapon Industry, London ( # 10 )
2015 Woman Cleaning Final Destination, Indonesia ( # 9 )
2015 Woman Cleaning Collective Memory, Masada Desert 2015 ( # 8 )
2015 Woman Cleaning Dumping of Mining Landfill, Norway ( # 7 )
2014 Woman Cleaning Coastline, India ( # 6 )
2014 Woman cleaning European History, Poland ( # 5)
2014 Woman Cleaning National Identity. Copenhagen ( # 4)
2014 Woman Cleaning National Identity. Hardanger ( # 3 )
2014 Woman Cleaning Shame. Norway ( # 2 )
2014 Woman Cleaning Palestine and Israel ( # 1 )
Dialog-based art:
2024 What does Peace look like? ; Nobel Peace Prize Centre, Oslo
2018-2023 Antiwar-Initiative, Bergen
2022 Rogaland Kunstsenter, Stavanger
2017 Samspill # III, Meteor Festival. The discursive program of BIT Teatergarasjen in Bergen.
2017 Laboratory of Restructuring, Public Library of Bergen
2016 Soups&Stories dialogue at the People's Museum in Birzeit. Palestine
2016 Soups&Stories dialogue at Artic Artforum. Arkhangelsk/Russia
2016 The legitimacy of insisting on being. Kunsthall 3,14. Bergen
2012-2016 Soups&Stories https://www.meisfjord-satre.com/colaborators.html
Curatorial work:
2026 Films from Palestine, Kunsthall 3,14
2025 Vågsallmenningen, a site-specific project; Bergen
2022 A World Struggling for a New Equilibrium, the Literature House in Bergen
2021 Things are ok when they are ok, Kunsthall 3,14
2020 The Anti-Terror Tour.Peter Voss-Knude, Kunsthall 3,14
2019 WeAreMillions.org/bergen
2015-2016 Gerilja Gatherings
2021 Things are okay when they are okay, Kunsthall 3,14
2020 The Second Chapter, How to Represent the Unrepresentable?
2020 The Anti-Terror Tour. Peter Voss-Knude, Kunsthall 3,14
2019 WeAreMillions.org/Bergen
2019 Valeria Montti Colque. CloudForest and The Lonesome Dreamer, Kunsthall 3,14
2019 wearemillions.org
2017 To Clean Up Old Sins, Performance Art Bergen
2016 The Prisoner at War; Paintings and Poems, Edinburgh
2015 The Curator's Choice, Bergen
2015-2016 Neda Tavallaee, Iran
2014 Bjørg Taranger, Norway
2014 Carl Martin Hansen, Norway
2010 SUBWAY-SUND. Artist: Kirsti von Hoegee
2008 The earth will remember us for our deeds. Mountain Fortress
2011 Re: tro " Artist: Jan Nyberg
2008 Increase the quality of life in your community, Bergen
2007 The grip, the new city of Straume, Bergen
2007 Filter by Bo Magnus. Worked together with Marit Aarre
2006-07 The Contemporary Video Gathering. Bergen
2005 Bergen X. Gallery 3.14. Bergen
Workshops/seminars:
2025 Can Art change the world? Arendalsuken, UIB/KMD
2025 From Utopia to Department of Peace. Curated by Panter Tanter Produksjoner, Trondheim
2024 Drawing portraits; Oslo Kulturskole, Nobel Fredsenter
2024 What does a culture of peace look like? Nobel Peace Center, Oslo
2024. The UN as a peacekeeping organisation, Bergen Assembly
2022 Workshop Sudan International Film Festival
2022 Climate Futurism Workshop, Omduram Cultural Center, Sudan
2022 Agenda: The Natural State of the Art: Art, Nature and Ecology; KIO-OSLO
2021 Climate Conference, Art Academy of Bergen.
2020 Critique & Esthetics, Kunsthall 3,14
2019 Global Threats to Press Freedom, Media City Bergen.
Panel: Stefania Maurizi, Eirin Eikefjord, Mads Andenes, Gisle Selnes, Rune Ottesten, Eirik Løkke. Moderator: Jan Landro
2019 Safety for Whom? Belgin, Bergen Assembly KODE
2019 Mobilisation with the peace activist David Hartsough, Kunsthall 3,14
2019 Dialogue with art collective ALT GÅR BRA, Public Library
2019 Patching up, Addis Ababa University Fine Arts and Design
2018 What is performance, Cost Contemporary
2017 Green Hijab Movement at PechaKucha vol. 9. Cornerteater
2017 Workshop Hardanger Academy for Peace, Klima, Development
2017 INTERPLAY, Kunsthall 3,14 (Eritrean Women's Union)
2016 Arctic ArtForum, Arkhangelsk
2016 Art and Activism seminar, produced together with Trap.no and OK.no
2016 A Nation on Freud´s Couch, discursive workshop with Ami Bayani, Mehrdad Afari and Adriana Alves
Publications:
2024 www.bt.no/btmeninger/debatt/i/rPl74w/bergen-bystyre-maa-prioritere-bedre
2023. BGO/CPH papers; in conversation with Sergei Prokofiev
2022 Fri, intelligent og manipulert. Essay i kulturtidskrift PLNTY 2/2022
2021 article in Nordlys, a text to the International Women's League for Peace and Freedom
2019 'When we act, we create reality', the newspaper NYTID
2019 Bergen-Copenhagen papers, first edition 2019
2017 & Acting; Nørrekjær Biennalen
2017 The 7th floor; publication by Performance art Bergen
2016 Unrest series, interviewing the French writer Nathalie Quintana
Grants:
2025 Scandinavia-Japan Sasakawa Foundation
2025 Cultural stipend from the municipality of Bergen, Bjørnseth Fond, Kirkens Bymisjon, BKV
2024 UD, Oslo Kommune, Norsk Kulturråd, Oslo ByjubileeT, Fredsstifelsen
2023 Antiwar-Initiative, Peace Fund Norway, City of Bergen
2022 City of Bergen, Diversestipend
2021 City of Bergen and Norwegian Art Council, IKFF
2021 Eu-Horizon program, Creative Europe
2019 Norwegian Art Council, NBK, Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design
2020 Fond for Lyd og Bilde, BEK
2018-2022 5 years of State-Grant (Statens Arbeidsstipend)
2017 One-year working grant, Norwegian Art Council
2016 One-year working grant, Norwegian Art Council
2016 OCA, Norwegian Art Council, Fond for Lyd og Bild
Media coverage:
01.02.2026. Vest Nytt
21.04.2023 https://www.bt.no/kultur/i/nQB5lQ/etter-hvert-oppdager-jeg-at-jeg-likevel-ikke-er-alene-i-
07.09.2022 https://klassekampen.no/utgave/2022-09-07/debatt-den-farlige-kunsten
20.02.2022 Forfatternesklimaaksjon
09.02.2022 Haugesunds avis
08.02.202 Hardangerfolkeblad og iFinnmark.no
08.12.2021 ND Nordnorsk debatt
26.12.2021 Review online art magazine, HAKAPIK
10.09.2021 Studvest https://www.studvest.no/tag/gitte-saetre/
15.07.2021 Klassekampen, Driter i fjorden/intervju.
08.06.2021 https://kunsten.nu/journal/er-du-klar-til-at-give-slip/
14.05.2021 https://www.areyouready.tv/2021/05/14/susanne-christensen-writes-about-are/you/read/
26.09.2019 https://spartakus.no/2019/10/26/the-cleaning-woman-gitte-saetre/
10.03.2019 Bergens tidene, Tv2, M24, BA, Ny Tid, NBK, Aftenposten, Steigan, NorskPen.
https://wearemillions.org/bergen/
22.01.2019 Sodere TV; Addis Ababa
21.01.2019 Walta TV, Ethiopia
16.12.2018 Hva er du redd for, Bergens Tidene
20.09.2017 Tv2; 2017 performative hacking of the Road World Championship
13.09.2017 Kunstkritikk http://www.kunstkritikk.no/kritikk/det-tamme-kor/
08.09.2017 Bergens Tidene https://www.nrk.no/hordaland/kan-performance-kunst-fa-
flere-til-a-stemme_-1.13678012
01.09.2017 Bergens Tidene; reportasje
01.09 2017 Bergens Arbeiderblad. Reportasje
12.06.2017 NRK P2; Kulturnytt. Interview