Knut Åsdam, born 1968 in Trondheim, is a filmmaker, installation artist, sculptor and photographer living in Oslo. Åsdam looks at contemporary society, its psychological and material effects, and the toll of everyday life; e.g. how individuals adjust their identity and desires in reaction to the rules and organisation of contemporary society. He investigates the usage and perception of public urban spaces, including their structures of political power and authority. The idiosyncrasy of Åsdam’s approach to the cinematic field is created by transposing the resources of spatial and place-oriented discourses from the Fine Arts context into film.
Åsdam´s work has been shown widely at i.e. Tate Modern; Bergen Kunsthall; Tate Britain; Boijmans van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam; Venice Biennial; Kunsthalle Bern; Istanbul Biennial; FRAC Bourgogne; MACRO, Rome; Museum of Contemporary Art, Oslo; Manifesta7; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; P.S.1 MOMA, NYC: and Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, among others. Feature articles on Åsdam's work have been published in Artforum, Grey Room, Le Monde Diplomatique, Untitled Magazine and many more.
Åsdam studied at Whitney Museum Independent Study Program (NYC 94-95), Jan van Eyck Akademie (Maastricht, 92-94), Goldsmiths College (London, 89-92), Wimbledon School of Art (London, 88-89), and the University of Oslo and Maui Community College, Maui, Hawaii.