Bjarne Melgaard
Bjarne Melgaard is an artist based in Oslo.
What artworks would you have/do you have in your drawing room?
In my drawing room I would include artists that I already either collect or have a work by. I would definitely bring my favorite painter, the late Erland Cullberg from Sweden and another Swedish favorite, Marie-Louise Ekman. I also collect photos of Richard Kern, even if nobody really understands why a gay man wants his wall covered with female nudes. I especially love a very early photo he made of Lung Leg, one of the stars of Kern's Cinema Of Transgression masterpiece “ Fingered.” Others works that I would bring from my collection are fashion photos by Guy Bourdin that I bought directly from his son in the 2010s in New York. Also his much lesser know paintings and drawings would be an all-time favorite of mine to have in my drawing room. I am also a fierce fan of Vaginal Creme Davis' make up paintings and would absolutely have a collection of those. Also, I would like to include a painting and drawings by Otto Muhl and a painting by legendary Swedish painter Torsten Anderson, a contemporary of Cullberg, but maybe more appreciated, and less of an outcast than Cullberg.
What books would you read/are you reading in your drawing room?
In my drawing room I would bring my favorite books and authors like “In my room,” by Guillaume Dustan or another classic like Herve Guibert “To the friend who did not save my life” to collected poems by my favorite poet Kristina Lugn and Benjamin Weissman “Dear dead person".
What movies would you watch/are you watching in your drawing room?
As for movies I would have to bring my all time favorite movie “The seventh continent“ by Michael Haneke and “The Piano Teacher” by same director. Also, I would want to see “Inside” the french horror flick by Julien Maury and Alexander Bustilo starring Beatrice Dalle as a psychopath on the loose. And to end it, "Baise-Moi" by Virginie Despentes and all the movies in “The Purge“ series.
What music would you listen to/are you listening to in your drawing room?
The music I would listen to would be a mix of what I always listen to and stuff I have been listening to on repeat or stuff I been listening to lately. As for what I repeat all the time, Hardkiss 1991 is my all-time fave with the track “Revolution“ as the most played track. Another track on repeat right now is "Fall for you” by Kings Of Tomorrow in different remixes and the track “Existenz“ by Felix Da Housecat and Kylie Minogue and Giorgio Moroder “Right Here, Right Now” are all songs on repeat. Albums that I always come back to are “For men only” by legend Millie Jackson and Salem “King Night” but also I have been listening more to compilations like Late Night Tales of musicians like Friendly Fires or Badbadnotgood to DJ Kicks with Chicken Lips and Moodymann to Lindstrøm.
Who would you/do you invite into your drawing room?
Well the one I would always want to invite and spend an evening in my drawing room with is my boyfriend Patrice since our conversations and company only get better and better. I think as a dream discussion partner I would invite Lee Edelman who wrote “No Future” in 2004 and is basically the biggest contributor to the discourse of the need for gay men to refuse the idea of having children or thinking trying to recreate a family situation no matter how non binary or alternative it would be. I met him in New York in the 2010's and he was supposed to be the interview object in one of my movies but for many reasons it just did not happen… But somehow his ideas seems more urgent and actual than ever.
