Bjørn Inge Follevaag (born 1957)

Translator's Note: This is a machine-assisted translation completed on July 25, 2025. While care has been taken to maintain accuracy, this translation has not yet undergone human review or validation. Please note that specialized terms, historical references, and nuanced content may benefit from expert review. 

Trained as a nurse, he also worked as a translator. In later years, he has worked as an independent curator for art projects both in Norway and internationally.

Follevaag was born and raised in Davanger, on the island of Askøy. In the interview, he reflects on his life as a young man in Bergen and Oslo, and offers a detailed account of his time based in Tromsø from 1987, when he worked across Northern Norway during the early response to the AIDS epidemic. He has also taught sexuality education through the Red Cross.

Follevaag was an active member of DNF-48 in Bergen, Oslo, and Tromsø.

Today, he is married and lives in Bergen with his husband, Terje Årsvoll Olsen.

An excerpt from the interview is included below, in which he recounts the tradition among gay men of giving each other women’s names, and preparations for a party at Ranhuset—where the 'ladies' encountered more drama than expected.

The full interview is available in the reading room at Skeivt Arkiv. We met with Bjørn Inge Follevaag in Bergen in September 2018.