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Anne Tveit Knutsen
PARADIS
I turn a spotlight on people in various situations in life and am passionate about the principle that everyone in society, regardless of resources, circumstances and position, should be treated with the same respect. I am motivated by the people I meet, the relationships I form, and the injustices I encounter, to make art, especially about people and groups whose voices rarely ring out loud. Originally, I trained as a nurse, a background that is also reflected in my art, not least through the attention I devote to themes such as dementia, neurodiversity, intellectual disability, grief and substance abuse. I express myself mostly through video, film and artist books, to articulate human stories and lived situations. This is clearly evident in my three publications: "am i too loud?", "Tvillingsong" and "Bird of Paradise".
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Publications
Bird of Paradise (Paradisfugl) (2025)
ISBN–978-82-94024-02-5
The book Bird of Paradise began with an encounter between artist Anne Tveit Knutsen and the late florist Rikhard Rune Juuhl (1952–2023), who had already fallen into the clutches of Parkinson’s disease and dementia. Drawing on the empathy and caregiving instinct from her previous work as a nurse, Anne developed her brief friendship with the gradually fading florist into a poignant project centred on the trinity of old age, floristry, and fine art.
The book gathers essays by well-established artists, philosophers, sociologists, and art historians, each exploring these themes from their own perspective and area of expertise. Designer Yilei Wang subtly embedded the connection between the three elements in the design details—such as the lenticular cover featuring negative images of withdrawing roots, and the page edges, which shift in colour from green to yellow.
As Anne asks in the introduction: What does it mean to flourish as a human being, even in the face of serious illness or disability?
English/Norwegian Size: 185mm x 110mm 255pages
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Design:Yilei Wang
Published by Kinakaal Forlag
Tvillingsong (2021)
ISBN–978-82-690989-5-2
Intertwined (Norwegian: Tvillingsong) is the companion book of the documentary film with the same title by Norwegian artist Anne Tveit Knutsen. The film followed a couple of intellectual disabled female twins, Eli and Toril, from West Norway into their post middle age lives. The original intention of the artist was to explore the special way of communication between the twins and with the outer world, but unexpectedly, Toril died of illness before the film was finished, leaving Eli facing the wild world alone, baffled. Fortunately Eli is obsessed with drawing. She has always been drawing with colour pencils on her notebooks since she were little. The drawings were abstract with colours and lines, sometimes letterlike symbols, mysterious and enchanting. The book contains some simple dialogues between the twins during the filmmaking. After Toril passed away, dialogues turned into monologues of Eli, which is full of incomprehension of death and perplexity for the future. The covers and inserts are all printed from the original drawings of Eli’s, which can be folded out to the original size. Being folded in, the drawings are otherwise hidden into another dimension. The Norwegian artist also simulated the isolation from and connection to the meanings of the surrounding the twins were experiencing throughout their life, by imitating the Chinese characters translated from the texts in the book, which she actually couldn’t understand. The book was designed by renown Chinese designer Yanrong Pan, and Chinese designer Yilei Wang, who is now based in Norway. The main paper used in the book was a type new developed paper that is light but strong and non-tearable, just like the connection between the twin sisters, fragile but inseparable.
Tvillingsong won The 2nd abC Art Book Award and was selected as one of the 100 books with the best design by Award360° in 2021.
Norwegian/Chineese Size: 180mm x 123mm 255
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Design:Yilei Wang
Published by Kinakaal Forlag
am i too loud? (2021)
ISBN–978-82-303-4921-2
The book Am I too loud? shows my most central works, both from the series Am I too loud, but also other earlier works, with clear relevance to the theme.
I work mainly with audio and film, but with this book I wants to give the viewer the opportunity to see my work in a new context. The book format gives opportunities that film and video do not provide.
In addition to my own, there are external texts by, among others, Kjetil Røed ("Pictures that liberate. About Anne Tveit Knutsen's art") and Kari Martinsen ("The listening conversation").
Design: Marianne Vigtel Hølland /Slow Design Studio
Hardcover, open spine with thread binding. Embossed title and dirt cover.
The book is bilingual in Norwegian and English
Size: 250 x 200 mm. 256 pages
