Curatorial statement
Okulus sets a framework in the landscape that facilitates movement, reflection and participation in a natural space. By being universally designed, the walkway balances physical barriers and makes it possible for everyone to encounter this small piece of forest on their own terms. In the same way, art can be seen as a kind of bridge or a “transition point” where something invisible emerges and makes us sense something still unfinished and unrecognized.
Nature also consists of different zones, each of which fulfills different functions in the great biological game. But where modern agriculture has largely contributed to creating a uniform nature, one also sees that similar social movements have managed to cultivate a uniform culture. This has, for example, led to the small and local losing their impact and more traditional knowledge either disappearing or being relegated to a life in the marginal zones.
In the natural sciences, the term “refugium” has a number of different uses. It can describe a natural area that seems insignificant in a biological sense (edge forest, stream bed, etc.), but which possesses key functions both for its own survival and as a prerequisite for the survival of other species. For example, during the flood season, nutrient-rich refugia form in rivers that can create safe spawning areas for fish. Another example is the more well-known “Nunatak refugia theory,” which states that the reason why certain plants and animals survived the ice age was that there were mountain peaks (the refugia) that stuck out of the ice. In other words, the state of emergency forces other premises for life and survival.
In our anthropocentric/anthropocene era, the refugia also represents the zones where humans – the most aggressive species on Earth – are not, but where other life forms and species can seek out, in order to have time to rest, survive and grow.
The word “refugium” also has an obvious etymological relationship with the English word for refugee, “refugee”. Perhaps one could say that the refugee, through having been displaced from his home, is also forced to create refuges that are not only intended to look back, but also create something new. In the face of majority culture and the streamlining of the “efficient” society, artistic expression also needs refuges for survival and growth on its own terms. In such a perspective, the “refuge” becomes pockets in society where precarious struggles for survival and resistance are taking place, places where people can receive and give care, but also build new strength and creativity.
In this year’s symposium, we want to nurture, develop and be inspired by “refuge” practices, ideas and fields of knowledge of invited artists in various genres. Our claim and experience is that art also helps to protect and shape alternative ecologies, by constituting a temporary home and safety zones for something that would otherwise have been wiped out, and can thus serve as a starting point and dispersal corridor for life to come.
Curators
Maja S. K. Ratkje
The music of composer and performer Maja S. K. Ratkje (b. 1973) has been performed by some of the world’s leading ensembles and performers, such as Klangforum Wien, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, POING, Trondheim Voices, Cikada, as well as most Norwegian orchestras and sinfoniettas. Ratkje is also known as a performer, primarily of her own works and as an improvisational musician. She has performed and recorded her own music for dance, theater, installations, film and literature.
Ewa Jacobsson
Ewa Jacobsson (b.1956) is a visual artist, composer and sound artist. She creates site-specific installations, visual and sound works. Her collaboration with musicians is based on processed field and instrument recordings, text and the local acoustics that sound sources create in prepared objects. Jacobsson’s work has been shown in exhibitions, concerts and museums, as outdoor works, permanent installations and live performance. She is currently creating Labyrinthic Explanation of Knowledge, a collaboration with Hilde M. Holsen and Ensemble Contrechamps from Geneva for Henie Onstad Kunstsenter/ULTIMA, as well as an installation for Museum Art.Plus, in Donaueschingen (DE).
https://sopranotronic.wordpress.com/
Eivind Hofstad Evjemo
Eivind Hofstad Evjemo (b. 1983) is an author and curator and has been associated with Harpefoss Hotel as a curator and writer since 2012. He published the novels Vekk meg hvis jeg sovner (2009), Det siste du skal se er et ansikt av kjærlighet (2012) and Velkommen til oss, before making his debut as a poet in 2016 with the book Kvelningsminner. In 2022, the novel Den nye årstiden was published, which will be an agricultural trilogy. The second part was the novel Ingens herre (2024).
https://www.eivindhofstadevjemo.com/
Dagur Eggertsson
Dagur Eggerstsson (b.1965) is, together with Sami Rintala, the founder of Rintala Eggertsson Architects, which works with furniture design, art in public spaces, architecture and urban planning. In 2008, Vibeke Jenssen became a partner in the firm and all three are former students of Juhani Pallasmaa in Helsinki, and are inspired by his phenomenological and interdisciplinary thinking. With their generous and open approach to architecture and their capacity to involve both people and the characteristics of the place, they have contributed to the development of projects all over the world.
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