OCA
is pleased to announce 'Thinking at the Edge of the World.
Perspectives from the North' an ongoing project initiated in 2015
within the OCA’s 'Notations' series, researching the cultural
history of Northern Norway, and developed in collaboration with local
protagonists during 2016 and 2017. The project will manifest itself
in various forms and locations across Norway (notably Svalbard,
Karasjok and Oslo) and beyond – including international conferences
and artist residencies across Northern Norway, as well as new art,
exhibitions, various forms of documentations and writing
commissioning.
Highlights
in this project include establishing a temporary OCA office in Tromsø
during 2016, under the auspices of The Cultural Business Development
Foundation SpareBank 1 Nord-Norge, as well as organising an
international, cross-disciplinary conference titled 'Thinking at the
Edge of the World' (12-13 June 2016) in collaboration with Northern
Norway Art Museum (NNKM), Tromsø, in the Kunsthall Svalbard. The
conference will bring together international figures from the fields
of art, psychology, philosophy, history, science and law. Further
details of the project´s programme will be announced shortly.
'Thinking
at the Edge of the World' is structured through regional and
international dialogue as well as partnerships (institutional and
individual), and includes invitations to artists and intellectuals to
visit and think about the region, considering it a unique vantage
point from which to reflect upon the environmental, aesthetic,
architectural, economic, political and scientific forces that are
shaping the North of Norway and its relationship to the world.
The
Arctic region, in particular that of Norway, sits at the heart of
heated as well as inspiring discussions of scenarios for possible
futures. Scientists tell us that that the latent forces released by
melting ice into in the frozen North would be enough to power the
world’s cities for many generations; that global warming is forming
navigation channels across the so-called Arctic Highway; and that the
geography of India, Bangladesh and China, among other nations, will
be affected with dramatic force resulting in harsh consequences upon
their social and economic framework.
'Thinking
at the Edge of the World' addresses some of the wider implications of
these changes in the North of Norway, and invokes the innovative
thinking that being at the edge of the world induces for the world at
large. How are frontiers questioned from an Arctic vantage point, and
how might this questioning catalyse new thinking regarding territory,
power and resource exploitation? Could concepts of society,
aesthetics and community explored during the nineteenth and twentieth
century – often led by artists and intellectuals from Norway and
its indigenous communities – be sought again to enlighten this
debate? Will the Arctic become, due to the increasing desertification
in the South, the new garden of the globe for food production and
distribution?
These
questions and the subsequent narratives of a developing future are
rooted in the unfolding physical forces embedded in the North.
However they also interlock with a wider past of myths and legends, a
storytelling deeply connected to the region, its exploration,
exploitation, accessibility and aesthetic history, as well as
forthcoming issues of trade, transportation and security.
'Thinking
at the Edge of the World' explores therefore the poetic and
innovative impact on artistic and other disciplinary forms of thought
that the extreme location of Northern Norway provides. In particular
the project focuses on the relationship between art, the environment
and activism in Arctic Norway as well as its northerly neighbours, in
order to highlight the global impact of these issues over time.
Mindful of the conflicted history and currency of the notion of
territory and resources, the project explores their relationship to
indigenous communities, their environments, culture and contemporary
perspectives – in particular the history and present of the Sami
communities inhabiting Northern Norway, but also Sweden, Finland and
Russia. From this vantage point, ‘Thinking at the Edge of the
World’ seeks to contextualise these questions in order to shift
them beyond a purely local understanding, linking them with synergic
issues found in diverse geographies and communities around the globe.
The
Office for Contemporary Art Norway is delighted to announce a
presentation of the second volume of documenta 14’s journal South
as a State of Mind
in Kárášjohka, Sápmi (Karasjok, Norway), together with documenta
14’s Artistic Director Adam Szymczyk and Editor-in-Chief of
Publications Quinn Latimer who will both introduce one of the world’s
largest exhibitions and conduct short readings from the journal on
Saturday 27 August 2016.
The
public presentation of d14 #2 volume is part of an intense day of
public programming which includes lectures, conversations and music,
together with Sami artists and activists speaking about crucial
moments in their recent history and today’s challenges within the
region. Among the contributors are curator and former director of the
Sami Center for Contemporary Art Jan-Erik Lundstrøm in conversation
with Hans Ragnar Mathisen, Britta Marakatt Labba and Synnøve Persen,
focussing on their commitment as founding members of Sami Artist
Group 1978–1983 / Mázejoavku: sámi dáidojoavku; presentations by
Associate Professor of Sami Literature at UiT – The Arctic
University of Norway Harald Gaski and film-maker Gunilla Bresky on
the work and life of Nils-Aslak Valkeapää; an address on the
rhetorics of Western law and indigenous philosophies of justice by
writer, yoiker and Associate Professor of Law at UiT Ánde Somby;
Associate Professor Hanna Horsberg Hansen from Tromsø Academy of
Contemporary Art and Creative Writing of UiT engaging in a debate
about today’s art production, activism as well as territorial and
environmental issues with Dáiddadállu/ Artists Collective
Kautokeino (a group of practitioners which includes, among others,
Elle-Marja Eira, Rawdna-Carita Eira, Elle-Sofe Henriksen and
Máret-Ánne Sara).
The
presentation of documenta 14’s journal South
in Sápmi is part of 'Thinking
at the Edge of the World. Perspectives from the North’
and coincides with Adam Szymczyk, Quinn Latimer and Candice Hopkins’s
participation within OCA's
IVP (International Visitor Programme).
It will allow the documenta 14 team to encounter current artistic
practices and conduct research regarding recent history and
developments within communities in Sápmi and northern Norway. The
event is curated by OCA in collaboration with documenta 14 and the
Sami Center for Contemporary Art, and co-organised with The Sami
Parliament.
A
day-long public programme in Kárášjohka, Sápmi (Karasjok, Norway)
and the first presentation of South
as a State of Mind
#7 [documenta 14 #2]
With
d14 Artistic Director Adam Szymczyk and d14 Editor-in-Chief of
Publications Quinn Latimer
Saturday
27 August 2016, 10:00–until late
The
Sami Parliament / Sámediggi
