Olof Olsson (born in Helsinborg 1965) lives and works in Copenhagen.

“I grew up in a small Swedish town. There wasn’t much entertainment. I had a transistor radio, but there was a state monopoly on broadcasting with only two hours of pop per week. A very cold winter night, a bit after midnight, I discovered a local pirate station. And for the first time in my life, I heard songs like ‘Le Freak’ and ‘In the Bush’. It was a completely overwhelming cultural experience. Some 15 years later, when I started to do art, I wanted to create some of the excitement of that situation. And I still do.”
Olof Olsson

For his residency at BAC Olof Olsson will be studying Almedalsveckan (The Politicians’ Week) on Gotland to explore the ceremonial aspects of the event and the way it constructs a notion of ‘Swedish politics’. Furthermore he will be lecturing about the seductiveness of disco and its politically charged message of love at Almedalen once the politicians have packed their suitcases and returned to the mainland.

Olof Olsson has studied philosophy, languages, and translation theory at Lund University – as well as art at Konstfack and The Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. In the 1980s he worked extensively as a pirate and community radio DJ, and since the early 90s he has worked with art in a wide range of formats, focusing on performance since 2007.

Olof Olsson will be at BAC during July – August.

He has been invited to BAC as part of the Artist-in-Residence program for Nordic artists funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers.