Research Catalogue

About this exposition

With Apartment Portraits contemporary music ensemble Lemur and artist Ellen J Røed investigates the rooms we live in through a series of sound and video works for living environments, musicians, microphones, cameras and videographer. Through video art and contemporary music they explored three apartments in Oslo: The oldest of them is a 1970s apartment at Hovseter, the other two are more recent. One is located on Teaterplassen in Grønland, and was built in the early 2000s, while the last one is in Sørenga, built in 2016. In the resulting portraits of apartments, subtle and slow panoramic camera strokes through the apartments explores and portrays the relationship between performed sound and living environments. It tells the story both of the rooms, their owners, the performers’ actions as well as those the videographer. Leilighetsportretter is part study, part concert, part installation, part site specific intervention and part architectural field trip in Oslo apartments. The project is one of four elements in 'Samtaler om rom' – Spatial conversations, where Lemur works in and around the at The National Museum – Architecture´s exhibitions on Norwegian housing architecture. As such the work is part of an interdisciplinary effort to explore new strategies for the presentation of architecture. It is developed within the overlapping research framework Image as Site at Stockholm University of the Arts. Project is supported by The Swedish Research Council, Stockholm University of the Arts, and Norwegian Art Council. The project was presented at The National Museum – Architecture, Oslo in the framework of Ultima festival of contemporary music and Kulturnatt Oslo, at Bomuldsfabrikken Kunsthall and at SKH Research Week 2021.

type	research exposition
keywords	moving image, architecture, place, apartments, contemporary music, video art, performance, materiality, technology, attention, field recording, cinematography, image as site, apartment, portrait, lemur, ellen røed, body
date	31/12/2023
last modified	04/10/2025
status	in progress
share status	public
affiliation	Stockholm University of the Arts
copyright	Ellen Johanne Røed, Lemur (Bjørnar Habbestad, Lene Grenager, Michael Francis Duch, Hild Sofie Tafjord).
license	All rights reserved
language	English
url	https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/2683102/2959037
connected to	Stockholm University of the Arts (SKH)

name	GRØNLAND
copyright	Ellen J Røed, Lemur
license	All rights reserved
usages	video, video

name	RippledCircle–2C00CC
copyright	Timo Menke
license	CC BY-NC-SA
usages	picture

name	Lemur_600 log
copyright	Lemur
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	RippledCircle–2C00CC
copyright	EJR
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture, picture, picture, picture

name	IAS_AP_01
copyright	Ellen J Røed
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	IAS_AP_02
copyright	Ellen J Røed
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	IAS_AP_03
copyright	Ellen J Røed
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	IAS_AP_07
copyright	Ellen J Røed
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	IAS_AP_10
copyright	Ellen J Røed
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	IAS_AP_05
copyright	Ellen J Røed
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	HOVSETER
copyright	Ellen J Røed, Lemur
license	All rights reserved
usages	video

name	SØRENGA
copyright	Ellen J Røed, Lemur
license	All rights reserved
usages	video

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Image as Site: Apartment Portraits (last edited: 2025)

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