artist statement

When moving from Norway to England at the age of 18, Anja Paixão’s life changed drastically. Her body of work, “Livets Vei / The Way of Life” interrogates the change of culture she experienced, and how the two cultures play a part in her everyday life.

While dressed up in her Norwegian national dress, the bunad, she retraces the mun-dane places of her life that she often visits or spends time at. By physically combining the Norwegian and English parts of herself, Paixão looks at how the unification of the two cultures changes the way she encounters these spaces.

“Livets Vei / The Way of Life” aims to give the audience an insight into how it is being raised in a culture that’s different to the one you’re currently living in. Paixão has ex-plored the differences and similarities of the cultures, looking at how her native culture has shaped her identity and how moving to a foreign culture can change it.