Hurricanes and Scaffolding: Symposium on Artistic Research, Ubmeje/Umeå December 2024.
This inter-disciplinary panel focuses on the challenges of placemaking on land impacted by settler-colonialism. Common for several indigenous cultures is a relationship to land based on principles of reciprocity, where giving and taking is a mutually beneficial practice. This challenges many Western cultures tendency to mainly consider land from a utilitarian perspective, prioritizing extraction for shorter economic gains over more long-lasting values like connection, co-habitation and co-existence. How can we re-think our relationship to land through the practice of art, design and architecture?
Centering indigenous research, the aim of the panel is to examine the intricacies of placemaking based on principles of relationality and reciprocity. How do we create sustainable relations to land and people in our place-making? How do we “host on hostile lands”, taking into consideration ongoing conflicts over land rights? How do we document land-based practices without offering up indigenous knowledge for extraction?
Transgressing the limitations of the two-hour panel-session format, as well as the campus architecture, the group will host a space in the form of a tentipi on the riverbank:
We welcome you to our lávvuo/tentipi at the brink of the river Ubmejeiednuo/Ume River on Thursday Dec 5th. The day is centered around a fire, sharing experience, practices and thoughts on land and reciprocity as a
foundation for sustainable placemaking. You can visit us at any time during the day – there is no beginning or end to the conversation. Please dress warmly.
10.30 Gáffestallan with Elena Mazzi and Åsa Andersson Martti
15.00 Sustainable Placemaking in Sápmi and the Nordics, panel discussion with all participants.
Coffee, fire and conversation the whole day.
On Friday at noon: Leave no trace, participatory performance with Marit-Shirin Carolasdotter.
Hosted by Marit-Shirin Carolasdotter (dance and choreography), Sandi Hilal (architecture) , Geir Tore Holm (fine arts) and Katarina Pirak Sikku (fine arts)
by invitation of Lisa Nyberg (post-doctoral fellow at Umeå Academy of Fine Arts).
