Curated by Nora Sternfeld in collaboration with artist Isa Rosenberger

The Museum of Burning Questions is a ‘Para-Museum’ in the occupied former fire station of Bergen. The fire station is occupied by retired firemen, who have a claim to realize a Fire Museum – a plan which has existed since 1916 – in the former “Brandstation”.

The Museum of Burning Questions is not representing this claim; it is established within the occupied fire station as a temporary alliance with the occupying firemen. The Museum of Burning Questions is a space to think and debate – with the Partisan Café as its central contact zone. The Museum of Burning Questions has a starting point in the history of fires in Bergen, yet situates itself in broader discourses about infrastructures. In this sense, the Museum of Burning Questions addresses the future of museums and of burning questions in general.

FIRES NEED AUDIENCES

Commissioned by Nora Sternfeld for artist Ariel Schlesinger.

As an artistic contribution to the Museum of Burning Questions the artist Ariel Schlesinger presents bags with the slogan ‘fires need audiences’. Open for different interpretations they will disperse into the streets of Bergen. The bags will be available from The Museum of Burning Questions during the Assembly.

Fires need audiences started with a short poem composed by the writer Dan Boehl and Ariel Schlesinger during one of their pyromania nights at Schloss Solitude residency, Stuttgart, 2015. Fires need audiences refers first, to Schlesinger’s obsession with fire and an urge to share this fascination with others.