A-FI-SA. But it might not be tomorrow

Maritea Dæhlin
A-FI-SA. But it might not be tomorrow
27.08.26–11.10.26

Oslo Kunstforening is pleased to present Maritea Dæhlin's (b. 1986) solo exhibition A-FI-SA. But it might not be tomorrow, on view at Oslo Kunstforening from 27 August to 11 October 2026. The first version of the exhibition was shown at the Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum venue at Nordover kunstsenter in Longyearbyen (27 September 2025 – 26 April 2026) and was curated by Liv Brissach. In late August and early September, site-specific and further developed versions open simultaneously at Oslo Kunstforening and at Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum in Bodø.

For the exhibition, Maritea Dæhlin has created the video installation A-FI-SA, filmed in Longyearbyen and in San Cristóbal de las Casas in Chiapas, Mexico, alongside a series of new works in analogue photography on mirror, and sound works. These investigate how ritualistic actions and the body's presence in different landscapes can activate memory, play, and possibilities for healing.

Through language, movement, and a multichannel soundtrack, A-FI-SA opens for reflection on experiences that are at once personal and collective, and that speak to the complexity of belonging to the African diaspora. The generational perspective — a recurring thread in Dæhlin's practice — is woven through the works: the artist, who has roots in Norway, Mexico, and Cameroon and is a third-generation artist, shares the stage with her daughter, Nina. Together they create situations in which bodies and landscapes challenge familiar assumptions about identity and belonging along a north–south axis.

The exhibition grows out of Dæhlin's residency at Artica Svalbard in 2023, a series of dialogues with collaborators in Mexico and on Svalbard, and the artist's long-term engagement with themes of identity, displacement, and multilingualism. The word afisa, repeated throughout the work, is an attempt to invoke connections to Medumba, a Bamiléké language of Cameroon. Its embodied meaning concerns how language can activate memory and connection, rather than the semantic value of the word itself.

The body — both as a site of experience and communication, and as something that is looked at, interpreted, and judged — runs as a strong current through Maritea's practice. She directs, confronts, and turns the viewer's gaze, navigating with sensitivity between stereotypes and identity politics without falling into either. In A-FI-SA. But it might not be tomorrow, landscape, language, and body emerge as the three central axes.

In conjunction with the exhibition, Maritea Dæhlin also presents a performance programme entitled When I See You. I See a Garden. Further information will be announced in August.

The presentation at Oslo Kunstforening has been developed in collaboration between Elisabeth Byre and Liv Brissach, with texts written by Liv Brissach. The exhibition was commissioned and supported by Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum, and the project has been realised with support from Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum, regional project funds, Billedkunstnernes Vederlagsfond, Fond for lyd og bilde, Kulturrådet, Atelier Nord, Artica Svalbard, and McColl Center.