Bjørn Hatterud was already an established writer, curator and musician when he made his debut as an author with the long essay Mot normalt (2018). Here he tells his story and his experiences of growing up in a rural environment in Brumunddal and feeling different. His second book Mjøsa rundt med mor (2020) describes a car trip around Mjøsa, where memories from the past, the dreams he had as a child and thoughts about who he became, are intertwined with a personal conversation with the mother who has always been close to her son. In the sequel Blokka på Bjerke (2023) he tells about life as a young person on disability benefits and the path to a professional working life as an art curator, musician and writer, with various board positions and eventually, membership in the Arts Council.

In his lecture, Bjørn Hatterud will talk about vulnerable bodies and the fear of being different. He writes: “We with different bodies are the result of various forms of refuge in society (institutions, medicine and legislation) – which have given us health and the right to life. At the same time, we are excluded from other places where people find refuge, such as social meeting places, cultural landscapes and art experiences. We are made invisible. All people’s bodies can become different, most eventually become disabled. Perhaps we with different bodies are an unpleasant reminder of exactly that.”

Axel Lindén was “just” an urban literary scholar before he returned home to take over the family farm in Östergötland in 2010. The paradigm shift was a fact, the fundamental premises of life changed forever. What does it mean to return home to a farm? And what exactly is a farm in the 21st century? This shift – with all its costs and its broadening of perspective – was in many ways the beginning of Lindén’s literary writing. A deep draft was set in motion. His debut, Fårdagbok (2017), combined themes such as sheep farming, care and slaughter with a critique of capital. In his second book, Tillstånd: Varannan tall, varannan gran och andra orimligheter (2020), a forester discusses the possibilities of abandoning his forest and instead letting it grow freely, without human interference. When he was about to publish his third book, Hästen (2022), he changed publishers from Bonniers to the refugee publisher Tankekraft, because he wanted greater distance from the established publishing systems. That book extends many of the themes that he has been concerned with since his debut: The potential for life in a thoroughly capitalized reality. How one can say no to societal premises and development trends with honor. How should one defend what one loves, but which has no monetary value?

In his lecture, Axel Linden will start from his horses and the work / interaction with them. He writes: “The animal and nature or the whole animal/nature is no object for me, but something that exists in the purple space between us, the refuge. Here reason does not prevail, but neither does madness, here there is safety, but also danger. Here I am safe, but also worried, here I know exactly what to do, but I also know that every day and every moment is a new challenge where anything can happen.