Håvard Sagen (b. 1986 Sandnes, Norway) is a photographer, multidisciplinary artist, and arts professional with a wealth of experience in videography, art documentation, art installation, education, project management and exhibition design. He has his education from The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts - School of Architecture, Stavanger Art School and Trondheim Academy of Fine Art.
He is known for producing site-specific installations with a considerable built and social element that typically work beyond the gallery framework. Sagen’s commitment to social engagement, interdisciplinarity, and sustainability is at the core of his broader practice as a photographer and artist.
Sagen is one of the founders of Skaus, a dynamic support structure that instigates encounters between sites, artists, architecture, social infrastructures, institutions, and local communities. Driven by an interest in the way community understandings are acquired, challenged, and changed within the theoretical frameworks and built environment of the cultural sphere, Skaus is an innovative and experimental project that seeks to challenge traditional ideas of art and community engagement.
From 2021-22 Sagen represented Norway at the International Studio and Curatorial Program (New York) as part of the collective SKAUS. In 2022 he built the project Trehus for the 8th Oslo Architecture Triennale, a temporary structure that (re)frames a linden tree by the entrance of the Old Munch Museum in Norway. Trehus explores the sensory and conscious use of shared spaces and the cultivation of community. He also created an extensive installation for the memorial exhibition of Gunnar Torvund at the Bryne Kunstforening.
Sagen is also known for his collaborative project Book of Sand - Singular Hands, which was presented in three different culturally-rich landscapes in Rogaland, Norway, undergoing transformation through extractive industries, development, and gentrification. In 2018 and 2019 he was employed as the expedition artist and photographer for the INTAROS and CAATEX projects two separate scientific expeditions on the arctic ice sheet with the Nansen Center.