NordArt 2026: four works that stayed

Four that stayed

Many of the works at NordArt can be seen beforehand as reproductions, in the catalogue, on the website, in the feed. Still I keep going back. A reproduction shows me what is in a picture. In front of the original I notice what it does to me, and that is exactly what I find inspiring every time. Of the around 200 positions this year, four stayed with me in particular.

Bego Riba and Undine Bandelin

In Bego Riba’s paintings bodies lie into each other, wrapped in fabric in red, green and yellow, painted so precisely that you almost want to touch the fabric. Only a face is not to be seen in any of the pictures, and that is exactly why you look for so long. Undine Bandelin’s triptych “Das Tribunal” (The Tribunal) from 2026 shows a naked figure with a hare’s head among green figures, colourful and painted almost cheerfully, and still you don’t quite know whether you are allowed to laugh.

Liu Yaming and Ochirbold Ayurzana

Liu Yaming’s “Eye in the Sky” measures nine by twelve metres. From a distance a whirl of light and dark, up close countless bodies falling and holding on to each other. Outside in the park stands Ochirbold Ayurzana’s “Der Mensch ist kein Überfluss der Erde” (Man Is Not an Abundance of the Earth), made in 2015, a huge body of steel wire that you can see through.

Four times the human being, and not one of the works is a portrait.

What connects the four for me and what I take from them for my own work, I have written up in detail in the magazine, with 57 photos and two short videos.