Symposium – The Annual Craft Exhibition 2021

Date: Friday the 26^th of November from 1 to 5 pm

Place: Sørlandets Kunstmuseum, room 205

Language: English

Price: free but registration required

As part of the Annual Craft Exhibition (Årsutstillingen), Sørlandets Kunstmuseum and Norske Kunsthåndverkere will hold a symposium to shed new light on the exhibition.

The symposium will include lectures, artist presentations, films, and a conversation. Together these interventions aim at expanding how yearly shows of contemporary crafts and their mediation can be understood.

Among other topics, it will explore how Martinique-born thinker Édouard Glissant’s concept of ‘archipelagic thinking’ can be used to relate artworks-islands in the metaphoric archipelago of the exhibition.

Additionally, the symposium will take an in-depth look at the artistic practice of several participating artists through artist presentations (Tone Andersen, Mingshu Li, and Daniela Bergschneider) and filmed studio visits (Anne Størseth, Pål Vigeland, and Gerd Wevling Matre).

The symposium will end on a conversation on ‘Crafts in the Anthropocene,’ between artists Ann Kristin Aas and Ingrid Berge, moderated by curator Hanne Cecilie Gulstad. This conversation will tackle pressing questions for contemporary crafts artist at a time of climate crisis.

13:00-13:05 – Welcome
Hanne Cecilie Gulstad, Sørlandets Kunstmuseum; Johanna Zanon, Norske Kunsthåndverkere

13:05-13:35 – Lecture
‘Archipelagos, Edgelands, Imaginations: Using Glissant’s Ideas in Cultural-historical Research,’ Tiina Peil, PhD, senior researcher, Institute for Culture and Learning, Södertörn University (SE)

13:35-13:45 – Lecture
‘The Archipelagic Exhibition,’ Johanna Zanon

13:45-13:55 – Film
Virtual tour of Årsutstillingen

13:55-14:10 – Break

14:10-14:35 – Artist presentation
Tone Andersen

14:35-14:40 – Film
Kunstnerbesøket: Anne Størseth (with English subtitles)

14:40-15:05 – Artist presentation
Mingshu Li

15:05-15:20 – Break

15:20-15:30 – Film
Studio Visit: Pål Vigeland

15:30-15:55 – Artist presentation
Daniela Bergschneider

15:55-16:00 – Film
Kunstnerbesøket: Gerd Wevling Matre (with English subtitles)

16:00-16:15 – Break

16:15-17:00 – Panel conversation
‘Crafts in the Anthropocene,’ moderated by Hanne Cecilie Gulstad, curator at SKMU, with artists Ann Kristin Aas and Ingrid Berge.

The symposium will take place physically at Sørlandets Kunstmuseum and will also be live streamed.

For in-person attendance: maximum 30 participants, with free registration here.

Online live streaming via Facebook.