In the royal gardens of Fredensborg in Denmark stands a large monument of roughly hewn granite stones combined with classical marble heads. Known as Forblommet Antik, or covert or ambiguous antiquity it was made by the Danish sculptor Johannes Wiedewelt in the 1750s and is indicative of how he sought to merge his studies of ancient antiquities with Nordic materials and landscapes. By seeing Forblommet Antik as emblematic for a willed entanglement of classical forms (the heads) and Nordic materials (the rough granite) we seek to explore how, during this period, the hegemony of the classical was becoming tempered—and even challenged—by the fascination for and the growing belief in the existence of a particular Nordic aesthetic. Informed by the region’s own history, climate and geography, antiquarians, such as O. Worm, had established a tradition of collecting Nordic antiquities during the 17th century uniting naturalia with artificiosa, and thus reaching beyond the studies of ancient texts to include local landscapes. In this session, we examine the role of classicism in the Nordic countries, and how it became entangled in the idea that there existed a Nordic aesthetic that somehow differed from the classical tradition. The session thus centers on the 18th century at the cross-section between 19th century reception of ancient antiquities and 17th century antiquarian practices, highlighting Nordic pre-historic landscapes and archaeological remains.
Keywords: 18th century classicism—Nordic landscapes—antiquarianism—aesthetics
Session chairs:
Tonje Haugland Sørensen, Researcher, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Amalie Skovmøller, Associate Professor, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Date: Monday, October 20th
Time: 16.00–17.30
Location: Small Hall, F4050, 4th Floor
Papers:
The Classical Idiom and the Problem of Odin’s Horse (Tonje Haugland Sørensen, Assistant Professor, University of Copenhagen)
Marblescapes: how foreign stones shaped Danish landscapes (Amalie Skovmøller, Associate Professor, University of Copenhagen)
A Small-Scale Empire in Porcelain (Helene Engnes Birkeli, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Bergen)
Eternal Love! Sphinx! Whoever Antinous clings to, is never abandoned by him (Marcel Engdahl, PhD Student, the Department of Art History, Uppsala University)
A growing interest in Indigenous architecture is emerging internationally. This interest encompasses architecture designed by, with, or for Indigenous communities, as well as the impact of non-Indigenous and colonial architecture. In the Nordic countries, a new interest in Sámi architecture has developed over the past decade, though studies on the subject remain limited and fragmented. Studies on architecture in the Nordic countries have rarely aimed to transcend national frameworks, thus Sámi architecture has also been obscured as a transnational phenomenon.
As part of an initiative by the Architecture and Design Museum Helsinki, the National Museum of Norway, and ArkDes, we are collaborating on a project to explore both Sámi architecture specifically, and architecture in Sápmi from a broader perspective.
The papers of this session discuss how architecture and architectural culture in Sápmi have developed and evolved through interactions with, in spite of, and as a result of various nation-state geopolitical strategies from the 17th century to the present.
Keywords: Sámi architecture—indigenous architecture—architecture in Sápmi—colonialism and architecture—decolonizing architecture
Session chairs:
Carlos Mínguez Carrasco, Chief Curator, ArkDes, Stockholm, Sweden
Petteri Kummala, Head of Research, Architecture and Design Museum, Helsinki, Finland
Bente Aass Solbakken, Senior Curator, The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Norway
Date: Tuesday, October 21st
Time: 9.00–10.30 + 10.45–12.15
Location: Small Hall, F4050, 4th Floor
Papers:
Slot I:
Inside the Circle—Outside the Frame: Sámi dwellings reimagined (Maria Nordvall, PhD Researcher, the Department of Social Anthropology, University of Aberdeen)
Cross-Pollination or Coercion? Critical notes on “hybridity” in ecclesiastical modern architecture in Sápmi (Sofia Nivarti, Assistant Professor of Architecture, Department of Architecture, University of Cambridge)
Making Amends?—negotiations and implications of the Akkats hydropower station art project (Felicia Söderqvist, PhD Researcher, Luleå University of Technology)
Slot II:
On Sámi Displacement and Solidarity in post-World War II Sápmi (Elisa Dainese, Assistant Professor, School of Architecture, Georgia Institute of Technology)
Architectural Conservation as a Decolonial Tool (Magnus Antaris Tuolja, Sámi handicrafter and builder, Samiskt bygghantverk / Ájtte)
This panel explores art and creative practices, including patients’ art and public art, in health care institutions in a Nordic context.
Art is experienced, used, and practiced in numerous settings and situations, also when we are at our most vulnerable and challenging stages of life. Art can be found in most hospitals, as public art, art therapy, in collections, exhibitions, and in hospital archives. Research about art and creative practices in healthcare institutions can contribute to a better understanding of the important role art can play in relation to people’s mental and physical health. The history of art in institutions of care also reveal the changing perceptions over time of the relation between art, creativity, and health.
Research in this field is often interdisciplinary, combining perspectives from for example art history, museum studies, healthcare science, and medical history. The topic is also closely related to current artistic and curatorial practices where it often is examined in relation to power and norms regarding creativity and health. The session provides a platform for papers that explore individual artists, exhibitions, specific sites, and institutions, art works, collaborative projects, or collections. In line with the conference’s aim this session should be seen as an invitation to explore and expand our knowledge about the Nordic context and aims to encourage further research collaborations.
Keywords: health—creative practices—public art—healthcare institutions—interdisciplinary research—existential health—healing
Session chair:
Hedvig Mårdh, PhD Art History, Senior Lecturer Cultural Studies, Art History and Visual Studies, Karlstad University, Sweden
Date: Wednesday, October 22nd
Time: 13.45–15.15
Location: F3006, 3rd Floor
Papers:
Art as a Boundary Object in-between Healthcare and Art History (Max Liljefors, Professor of Art History and Visual Studies, Lund University)
Herlev Hospital: the largest work of art in Denmark by a single artist… or a result of the Nordic welfare state? (Philip Pihl, PhD Student, Aarhus University)
Magical Healing: a case study on the (un)predictability of using art in the healthcare sector (Peter Bengtsen, Associate Professor of Art History and Visual Studies, Lund University)
The Salutogenesis of Response within Tina Enghoff’s Photography Workshops (Erika Larsson, Associate Professor of Art History and Visual Culture, Lund University)
This session explores the artist’s role as it relates to, becomes entangled with, or disrupts ideas of a “Nordic” identity. Since the rise of the artist as a professionally distinct and exceptional creative agent during the early Renaissance, artists have been interpreted—and have often interpreted themselves—as pars pro toto of their geographical area, region, nation, culture, etc., thereby taking on representative roles in terms of style, motifs, and expressions. Artworks are supposed to communicate not only the qualities of their individual makers, but also the places with which they identify. Then, as now, both art objects and their creators tend to be appropriated and politicized as symbolic—or even deviant—phenomena, either reinforcing or unsettling notions of collective national or “Nordic” identity.
In this session, we aim to problematize the expected connection and interaction between such composite identities within the role of the artist by highlighting cases of supposedly “Nordic” artists who promote, negotiate, or question their national or Nordic identity, particularly in relation to their self-fashioning as representatives for or against such notions. Self-fashioning may imply strategies of self-promotion and validation through visual self-display in different media or embodied life-performances. It may involve strategic art production either in support of, or opposition to national or regional labels, evolving through textual discourses that reinforce or transcend images of national or Nordic identity. In this session we discuss diverse aspects of identity formation in the artist’s role and its relation to Nordic identity, whether by investigating individual artists or theorizing general themes and questions in historical or contemporary contexts.
Keywords: artist’s role—Nordic identity—self-fashioning—self-promotion—nationalism
Session chairs:
Andrea Kollnitz, Professor in Art History, Stockholm University, Sweden
Øystein Sjåstad, Professor in Art History, University of Oslo, Norway
Date: Monday, October 20th
Time: 11.00–12.30 + 14.00–15.30
Location: Small Hall, F4050, 4th Floor
Papers:
Slot I
The Battle of North and South: climate theory in the formation and reception of Thomas Fearnley as a Nordic artist (Trine Nordkvelle, Doctoral Research Fellow, National Museum of Art / University of Oslo)
Tyko Sallinen’s non-Nordic Art: racialization and Finnish art in the Scandinavian context (Timo Huusko, PhD, Chief Curator of Collections at the Ateneum Art Museum / Finnish National Gallery)
“Nordic Archetypes”? On the role of a “Nordic Neo-Avant-Garde artist” in the Harvesters’ exhibitions between Finland, Iceland, and Sweden (Diana Kaur Vonna-Michell, PhD, Lecturer, Researcher, and Curator, Uppsala University)
Slot II
Myth, Music, and Manifestation: Richard Wagner’s artistic identity and the Nordic imagination (Dagmar Thielen, PhD Researcher, Faculty of Architecture, Catholic University of Leuven (KU Leuven)—Coventry University)
Composite Notions of “Nordicness” in Ernst Barlach’s Oeuvre and His Reception (Charlotte Plückhahn, PhD Student, Goethe University, Frankfurt)
“Ossessione Nordica”: Italian conceptions of Nordic art and the Nordic artist in the early twentieth century (Liliana Leopardi, Associate Professor of Art History, Chair of the Art and Architecture Department—Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Geneva NY)
Today the term biennial is used to refer to landmark survey exhibitions of international contemporary art, including not just biennials but also triennials, and even the quinquennial exhibition, documenta. Examples of biennials from a Nordic context are the Helsinki Biennial, Göteborg International Biennial of Contemporary Art (GIBCA), Lofoten International Art Festival (LIAF), Bergen Assembly, and the ARoS Triennial.
In the introduction to The Biennial Reader (2014) Filipovic, van Hal, and Øvstebø call for what they term biennialogy—“the study of something in a systematic, rigorous way in order to generate a body of knowledge”. The editors convincingly argue that biennials try to make sense of contemporary culture and that there is a need to examine them not only to understand what is at stake in the art (field), but also to comprehend today’s world. Even if there has been a growth in research on biennials since The Biennial Reader was published ten years ago, surprisingly little is written about biennials in the Nordic countries. How did they come about? Which artistic and curatorial practices do they generate? What topics do they address? How do the biennials in the Nordic countries attune and adapt to the local sites, and which place-making activities do they produce? How do they respond to and reflect the politics of the Nordic nation states and the geopolitical situation? Do they have impact on the practices of a broader field of contemporary art, and are they comparable to biennials outside of the Nordic countries? Is there a potential for continued relevance and future of the biennials, and do they foster resilient communities—in the long term? These are some of the questions we ask.
Keywords: biennials—contemporary art—artistic practice—curatorial practice—place-making—Nordic
Session chairs:
Hanne Hammer Stien, Professor, Academy of Arts, UiT The Arctic University of Norway in Tromsø, Norway
Elin Haugdal, Professor, Department of Culture and Language, UiT The Arctic University of Norway in Tromsø, Norway
Stephanie von Spreter, PhD, Norway
Haugdal and Stien are co-heading the research group Worlding Northern Art | UiT where von Spreter is a member.
Date: Monday, October 20th
Time: 14.00–15.30 + 16.00–17.30
Location: F3017, 3rd Floor
Papers:
Slot I (led by Elin Haugdal & Hanne Hammer Stien)
“The Spaceship has Landed”—local and international agendas at Bergen Assembly (Synnøve Marie Vik, Senior Curator of Contemporary Art, Kode Bergen Art Museum)
Latitudinal Solidarities—biennials in the South and the North (Kaija Kaitavuori, Academy of Fine Arts Helsinki, University of Helsinki)
Not Exotic Enough to be “Found”—Not Centre Enough to be the Attraction: cases of Gothenburg International Biennial for Contemporary Art 2021 and Borås Art Biennial 2021 (Mansi Kashatria, PhD Candidate, Department of Culture and Society (IKOS), Lindköping University)
Momentum 13: Between/Worlds: resonant ecologies—a sonic inquiry into Nordic biennials (Morten Søndergaard, Associate Professor, Department of Communication and Psychology, Aalborg University)
Slot II (led by Stephanie von Spreter)
From Nordic to Arctic: Nuuk Nordic Culture Festival / Suialaa Arts Festival as platform for self-determination and new regional solidarities (Lorenzo Imola, MA Student, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
To Redraw the Map: how can an art biennale be a decolonizing force on the grounds where it takes place? (Maria Svonni, Artistic Director, Luleå Biennial/Konstframjandet Norrbotten, Founder, Verdde)
The Sápmi Triennial and the Råneå Biennial—background, realization, and future prospects (Maria Lind, Director, Kin Museum of Contemporary Art, Kiruna)
Challenging the Notion of the Nordic: the Sámi Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (Monica Grini, Associate Professor, Department of Linguistic, Literary, and Aesthetic Studies, University of Bergen)
The Great Nordic Art Exhibition—continuities and discontinuities in Nordic biennials from the 1860s until today (Jonas Ekeberg, Director, Norwegian Association of Art Societies)
Crafts have been in focus of interest for institutions, practitioners, and researchers for a long time as means to differentiate or unify the Nordic and/or Scandinavian region. Stakeholders such as museums, handicraft associations, or individuals, have used different methods to map craft—its techniques, materials, and objects—aiming for understanding, interpreting, and communicating craft and its contexts. In different collections or inventories the Nordicness of craft may mean different things. It can be Nordic by nature—focusing materials from the region. Or Nordic by regional definition—where the aesthetic categorizations can be used to rule out or include craft traditions from other countries in for example the Baltic region.
Common methods are to make inventories, to document, to collect, and to archive craft, by processes of selecting and deselecting. The results of these efforts may be photographs, sketches, films, interviews, descriptions, manuscripts, handbooks for crafters, books on craft, collections of different kinds, or discussions on social media, etc. The mapping activities are not limited only to the Nordic region but reverberate in collections around the world. In this session we focus on mapping, archiving, and disseminating craft in historical, as well as contemporary practices.
Keywords: craft institutions—documentation—inventories—material cultural studies
Session chairs:
Johanna Rosenqvist, Professor, Department of Music and Art, Linnaeus University, Växjö, Sweden
Anneli Palmsköld, Professor, Department of Conservation, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
Karin Gustavsson, Researcher, Department of Arts and Cultural Sciences, Lund University, Sweden
Date: Wednesday, October 22nd
Time: 13.45–15.15
Location: F3005, 3rd Floor
Papers:
Visualizing Contested Geographies: the popular silk road in contemporary art practices (Elena Mazzi, PhD Candidate, Villa Arson Côte d’Azur University)
Artek as a “Cultural Archive”—Indian textiles in Finland 1966–1976 (Daniele Burlando, Doctoral Researcher, University of Helsinki)
Unfolding Kven Craft: a collective journey through archives (Åsne Kummeneje Mellem, Tromsø-based artist and photographer; Tarja Salmela, Writer and Postdoctoral Research Fellow, UiT The Arctic University of Norway; Gyrid Øyen, Researcher, Varanger Museum, Norway)
Mapping Swedish Folk Textile Art in a Nordic Context (Johanna Rosenqvist, Professor, Linnaeus University; Anneli Palmsköld, Professor, University of Gothenburg; Karin Gustavsson, Researcher, Lund University)
We invite scholars to join a session exploring the vital cooperation between artistic networks, galleries, and museums across the Nordic region throughout the 20th century. Recent research reveals that from 1945 to 1990, Nordic exhibitions constituted half of all foreign exhibitions in Sweden’s major art institutions, with the 1980s and 1990s being the most vibrant periods of cross-border interaction. Despite this, the motivations, resources, and contexts that drove these connections remain largely unexplored.
Traditionally, art history has focused on the interactions between Nordic artists and the major international art centers. However, the “horizontal” relationships within the Nordic region—between institutions, artists, and cultural actors—deserve greater attention. We currently lack a comprehensive understanding of connections within the Nordic art world, including the art market, collectors, patrons, art schools, museums, and state agencies.
This session examines the public platforms of artistic exchange in the Nordic region, such as exhibitions, art or trade fairs, feminist manifestations, political festivals for peace or against nuclear power, public art, art journals, and conferences, etc., during the 20th century. We aim to investigate the conditions and outcomes of these collaborations, the networks of professionals, key funders, and the institutions that facilitated them. Additionally, we are eager to explore the various media and public spaces where these collaborations unfolded, and the visions they communicated to a Nordic audience.
We welcome scholars interested in deepening the conversation around the important interactions that have shaped the Nordic art community and in uncovering the untold stories of artistic cooperation in the region.
Keywords: artistic circulations—cross-border connectivity—regional collaborations
Session chairs:
Marta Edling, Professor of the History and Theory of Art, Södertörn University, Sweden
Jessica Sjöholm Skrubbe, Professor of Art History, Department of Culture and Aesthetics, Stockholm University, Sweden
Date: Wednesday, October 22nd
Time: 10.45–12.15
Location: F3005, 3rd Floor
Papers:
Foreningen Fransk Kunst: a Scandinavian laboratory for art historical and museological practice (1919–1928) (Dina Eikeland, PhD Fellow, Institut national d’histoire de l’art, Paris)
Networking of the Northern Artists in the Barents Region in the late 1980s and early 1990s (Anniina Koivurova, Professor of Art History, University of Lapland)
Transnational Threads: the Nordic textile triennial and the politics of textiles (Sigrun Åsebø, Associate Professor of Art History, University of Bergen)
This session examines the architectural interactions between the Nordic countries and the Mediterranean, considering the North’s ever-evolving relation to the South as a cultural and geographical entity, as well as a place of the imaginary. We focus on 20th-century Nordic architects and architectural theorists who engaged with the Mediterranean and its adjacent regions, exploring how their travels, exchanges, and experiences—as well as their use of drawings, photographs, and source books—shaped their work and writings.
The session highlights the interwar and postwar periods, when Nordic architects began to develop direct, lived relations with the Mediterranean and its architecture, in addition to established mediated sources, such as illustrated publications. During postwar modernization, the rise of summer tourism and the relative economic prosperity of the Nordic countries drew broader audiences to the Mediterranean, permeating popular culture (as expressed, for example, in the travel books of Göran Schildt or Thorbjørn Egner’s Folk og røvere i Kardemomme by). Across these periods, the still-rural Mediterranean offered Nordic architects the opportunity to reflect on modernism, history, landscape, and vernacular traditions and reconsider their own practices.
What role did these Mediterranean encounters play in the dialogue between modernity and tradition that shaped Nordic architecture in the 20th century? In what ways did the Mediterranean serve as a “mirror” for Nordic identities? To what extent did these “Dreams of the South” inform Nordic architectural practices, from the study of classical antiquity to the discovery of broader regional and vernacular approaches?
The session seeks to transcend entrenched concepts of European “center and periphery” and to challenge the primitivizing and sometimes orientalist views that have often colored northern-European perceptions of the South, as well as the equally persistent romantic image of the Mediterranean as the “cradle of classicism”. By also considering cross-disciplinary perspectives such as archaeology and ethnographic observation, the session highlights how mediated and lived experiences alike shaped architectural imaginaries. Dreams of the South ultimately invites scholars to reflect on, re-examine, and question Nordic architecture and cultural identity in relation to the Mediterranean, and to re-evaluate these exchanges in the context of today’s hyper-connected world.
Keywords: North and South—imaginary—architecture—national identity—Mediterranean
Session chair:
Panagiotis Farantatos, Architect, PhD, Associate Professor, School of Communication and Culture, Art History, Aarhus University, Denmark
Date: Wednesday, October 22nd
Time: 10.45–12.15 + 13.45–15.15
Location: F3010, 3rd Floor
Papers:
Slot I:
What Visual Sources? Travel to the South versus books in the practice of Sigurd Lewerentz (Anna Bortolozzi, Professor of Art History, Department of Culture and Aesthetics, Stockholm University)
Tuscany in Central Finland: Alvar Aalto and the landscape qualities of the vernacular (Christin Nezik, Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin, Department of Art History, Ruhr University Bochum)
With Foreign Eyes: Sverre Fehn between Morocco and Norden (Giovanni Comi, Assistant Professor, Polytechnic Department of Engineering and Architecture, University of Udine)
Slot II:
Making Sketches in the Mediterranean and Middle East: ideas of archaeology and community in the work of archaeologist/ architects Anne Tinne Kielland Friis and Mogens Lønborg Friis (Tom Davies, Nordland County Council; Gabrielle Kielland Friis, Norconsult)
Towards a Vernacular Modernism: the “Knutsen school’s” travels in Greece (Panagiotis Farantatos, Associate Professor, Aarhus University)
This session aims to critically examine the art historical hierarchy that traditionally positions certain figures or centers as the primary sources of artistic influence in the Nordic countries. Since the 1970s, and particularly throughout the 1980s, a shift in perspective emerged with social and technical studies revisiting established ideas about borders, centers, and peripheries in Medieval northern art. However, some forces have resisted this shift, and there remains a tendency to revert to national perspectives.
Today, there is a timely opportunity for a comprehensive, renewed view of Medieval Nordic art, prompted by the emergence of global art history, advancements in technical art history, and an increasing distance from earlier art historical paradigms.
The papers of this session offer fresh perspectives on Medieval Nordic art. The papers discuss:
Keywords: medieval art history—cross-disciplinary studies—hierarchies in art—borders and peripheries—materiality in art—network studies—art historiography
Session chairs:
Dr. Kristin Kausland, Senior Researcher and Paintings Conservator, PhD, Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research (NIKU), Oslo, Norway
Prof. Dr. Julia Trinkert, Assistant Professor of Medieval Art History, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, Institut für Kunstgeschichte, Düsseldorf, Germany
Date: Monday, October 20th
Time: 11.00–12.30
Location: F3005, 3rd Floor
Papers:
Dürer’s Design and Birgitta’s Beast: the Last Judgement in Late Medieval carved altarpieces in the North (Ragnhild M. Bø, Associate Professor, Faculty of Theology / the Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo)
Word, Image, and Materiality: cross-disciplinary perspectives on 15th- and 16th-century urban dwellings in Estonia (Anu Mänd, Professor of Art History, University of Tartu)
Hermen Rode’s Textile Worlds: local and global? (Kerttu Palginõmm, PhD, Specialist, University of Tartu, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Institute of History and Archaeology)
Borderlands to Borderless: using historical networks to reconsider the history of Medieval Nordic art (Benjamin Zweig, Columbia University Libraries and Pratt School of Information)
The idea of a special closeness with nature has been and still is one of the strongest narratives about Scandinavian Design. While its roots can be traced back to the occupation with and construction of national art, lifestyles, and material cultures in the National Romantic period, it was also very much prominent in the formation and branding of the concept of “Scandinavian Modern” in the 1950s, where images of Scandinavian landscapes featured prominently supporting claims of the special character of Scandinavian Design stemming from traditional craft cultures that had preserved an intimate understanding of local natural materials, or that the organic forms of Scandinavian “organic modernism” were being derived directly from features in the national landscapes. This strong narrative was, however, shaped in a period where the forces of industrialization and urbanization were rapidly changing both design cultures and actual landscapes, and it can even be argued that the success of this dream image of Scandinavian culture may be viewed as a reaction to these changes. The present climate crisis has only enforced the narrative even further since it can be used to position Scandinavian Design as particularly sustainable, but on a background where the modern relationship with nature has been thrown into question.
The starting point for this session is the notion that design mediates nature in a double way. It does so by physically shaping and regulating landscapes and making natural phenomena tangible, but also by providing images and narratives of regional landscapes and relationships with nature. There is thus a reciprocal relationship between the way design has shaped Nordic landscapes and relationships with nature and the way it has produced images of Nordic nature as part of the construction of Nordic identity.
Keywords: Scandinavian design—mediation of nature—construction of Nordic identity
Session chairs:
Niels Peter Skou, Associate Professor, Design Studies, Department of Design, Media and Educational Science, SDU Kolding, University of Southern Denmark
Anders V. Munch, Professor, Design History, Department of Design, Media and Educational Science, SDU Kolding, University of Southern Denmark
Date: Monday, October 20th
Time: 14.00–15.30 + 16.00–17.30
Location: F3005, 3rd Floor
Papers:
Slot I: Materials and Production
Naturalization of Danish Design (Anders V. Munch, Professor, University of Southern Denmark; Niels Peter Skou, Associate Professor, University of Southern Denmark)
Natural Fibers and Nordic Tradition in Modern Swedish Textile Design (Anna Bergfeldt, Doctoral researcher, Art History, Åbo Akademi University)
Threads of Resistance: Elsa Montell-Saanio and Lapin Raanu in post-war Lapland (Sini Rinne-Kanto, PhD Candidate, Curator, Paris 8 University)
Slot II: Landscapes and Infrastructure
Museal Mediation of Nature at the Biological Museum of Stockholm (Molly Sjögren, PhD Student, Södertörn University)
Modern Architecture as Compensation for Lost Nature: controversial heritage of hydropower architecture in Oulujoki (Satu Kähkönen, Senior Adviser, Finnish Heritage Agency)
The Aesthetics of Infrastructure from Car Parks to Nature: on the careful design of post-war Finland (Eeva Berglund, Adjunct Professor of Environmental Policy, Aalto School of Arts, Design and Architecture; Tiina Männistö-Funk, PhD, Academy Research Fellow at the Department of Finnish History, University of Turku)
Our session delves into the concepts of “myth”, “mythology”, and “mythmaking” in the context of art, architecture, design, and visual culture in the Nordic countries. Although “myth” is often used to denote falsehood, from a Cultural Studies perspective, the term is used to refer in general terms to a story that narrates supernatural involvement in the physical world or bespeaks core cultural values.
Our approach to the session topic is twofold. On one hand, we are interested in ways myths and mythologies have been visualized, circulated, and contested in the Nordics. How do art and design pieces and practices communicate, transform, or subvert nationalized narratives and religious or other belief systems?
On the other hand, we are interested in the material and/or discursive mechanics of myths, mythologies, and mythmaking. In this aim, we ask how some Nordic artworks or artists have become considered as iconic or legendary—and some have not. In what ways can myths within and about the visual arts be critiqued or challenged?
Keywords: myth—mythology—mythmaking—visual arts—the Nordics
Session chairs:
Oscar Ortiz-Nieminen, Post-Doctoral Researcher
Terhi Utriainen, Professor
Alexandra Bergholm, Senior Researcher
All are members of the Whose Angels? Art, Research, and Enchantment project, University of Helsinki, Finland.
Date: Tuesday, October 21st
Time: 10.45–12.15
Location: F3004, 3rd Floor
Papers:
Edvard Munch as Totem and Taboo—homage, compulsion, and “The Great Patricide” in the visual art of 21st century Norway (Zuzanna Borowska, MA, University of Warsaw)
Gendering Norwegian Fin de Siècle Nature Mythologies: flowers, ocean, sky, and the supernatural in Frida Hansen’s weavings (Adine Lexow, PhD Fellow, University of Oslo & Norwegian National Museum of Art, Architecture, and Design)
How Hugo Simberg’s Untitled Painting Became “The Picture of Our Nation”: drafting a reception history of The Wounded Angel (1903) (Oscar Ortiz-Nieminen, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Helsinki)
Famously Neglected: John Bauer as artist and myth (Martin Sundberg, Artistic Director, Helsingborg Museum)
The session aims to explore the impact major alterations in Nordic church interiors during the 1800s and the subsequent restorations of the 1900s have had on our current perception of church interiors. During the 20th century, a revived interest in historic church art led to the “restoration” of church interiors, often aimed at recreating an idealized medieval or baroque aesthetic. This restoration process, intended to evoke a pan-Scandinavian artistic heritage, frequently came at the expense of the 19th century designs. Wall paintings were uncovered, fragments of original furnishings were restored and reintegrated, and entire interiors were reimagined according to these ideals.
This session invites discussion on the extent and authenticity of these restorations, as well as the motivations and historical assumptions that underpinned them. For instance, early antiquarians and restorers in Norway sought inspiration in Denmark for ways to “revive” medieval styles. This prompts questions about who influenced Danish restoration practices and how restoration approaches in Sweden and Finland evolved concurrently.
Topics discussed include:
Keywords: church art and interiors—medieval—universal Scandinavian color instinct—early antiquarians—nation building—restoration—materialities—National Trust—art histography
Session chairs:
Project Group “Memento Restauratum! Historical Restorations of Church Interiors in Norway” (MEMRES), represented by: Elisabeth Andersen, and Susanne Kaun, Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research (NIKU), Oslo, Norway
Date: Tuesday, October 21st
Time: 9.00–10.30 + 10.45–12.15
Location: F3017, 3rd Floor
Papers:
Slot I:
Theory and Practice of “Color Restoration” (Farverestaurering) in Early Church Restorations in Norway (1912–1940) (Anne Milnes, Conservator-Restorer, Cand.philol., Private Practice, Oslo, Norway)
Rootless Paintings: kalkmalerier and the search for Nordic aesthetic particularity in nineteenth-century Denmark (Ronah Sadan, PhD Fellow, Independent Scholar)
Revealing Color in Church Interiors, Medieval, and Beyond (Anneli Randla, Senior Research Fellow, Estonian Academy of Arts; Hilkka Hiiop, Professor, Estonian Academy of Arts)
Slot II:
Bringing Back the Medieval Images to Lutheran Church: the restoration case of Kalanti in 1884 (Leena Elina Valkeapää, PhD, Title of Docent, University of Jyväskylä)
Johnny Roosval and the “Wrong” Medieval Sculptures at the Turku Cathedral Museum’s First Exhibition in 1929 (Katri Vuola, Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Architecture, Aalto University)
Karin Månsdotter Re-Constructed (Saila Leskinen, MA, Doctoral Researcher, University of Helsinki)
During the 1972 Documenta 5 exhibition in Kassel, the Scandinavian Bauhaus Situationist, an artists’ group also known as Drakabygget, intervened by staging their own unauthorized “Alternat-Documenta”, a collectively made barricade of “junk” consisting of a pile of wood scraps and trash, situated outside the exhibition hall. Accompanying the work was a series of leaflets stating the group’s demands, including a call to the international art community to “Follow Courbet” by constructing art barricades designed to resist the monopolization of cultural life by an elite art-system of nationalism. In a similar gesture to the French painter’s Pavillon du Réalisme—which challenged the authoritarian art-system by exhibiting work that had been rejected from the Salon of 1855 in a highly visible yet marginal public location—Drakabygget launched their critique without becoming complicit in the system they opposed. This Nordic example is one of many postwar conceptual artworks that address artists’ engagement with institutions as systems of power and the established modes of practice they represent.
From the corporation to the art school, the papers of this session investigate Nordic and Northern European artists and artist collectives from the 1960s to the present in their operation within or in their attempt to change institutional bodies such as the government, the corporation, and the art school. We hope to gain a more intricate understanding of the art historic context that influence many artists today working within residencies and institutional frameworks. This panel ultimately asks proposals to consider: Can an artist operate critically within systemic structures without dismantling the institution itself?
Keywords: Nordic art—artist collectives—experimental pedagogy—collaborative and socially engaged art and its theoretical contexts—protest art—modern and contemporary art history and critical theory—systems of power—art as resistance strategy—art barricades—activist art—institutional critique
Session chairs:
Dr. Wylie Schwartz, Assistant Professor, Department of Art and Art History, State University of New York at Cortland, United States
Dr. Katherine Jackson, Assistant Professor, Department of Art History, Utah Valley University, United States
Date: Monday, October 20th
Time: 11.00–12.30
Location: F3004, 3rd Floor
Papers:
Alternative Voices in the Museum: institutional critique in three cases of Nordic contemporary art collectives (Pilvi Kalhama, Museum Director, Doctoral Researcher, University of Turku)
The Cave Art Museum: Asger Jorn and Jørn Utzon’s underground anti-museum (Niels Henriksen, MLitt, PhD, NNF Postdoc at SMK and Museum Jorn)
Poul Gernes and Art School Collectives—a double-sided story (Philip Pihl, PhD Student, Aarhus University)
Power Struggle over Art Education in Iceland (Margrét Elísabet Ólafsdóttir, Professor in Art Theory, Department of Fine Art, Iceland University of the Arts)
Violent Games: Nordic artistic representations of institutional dependency and terms for liberation during the 1960s (Ellen Suneson, Postdoctoral Fellow, Lund University)
How the styles, themes, and images spread in-between the Nordic countries in the 19th century art and visual culture? And how “Nordic” were they indeed? This session broadly explores themes such as the migration and survival of images, (inter)cultural artistic and visual influence, the networks of artists including artists’ colonies, exchanging letters and postcards, even postage stamps. The network and spread of images have greatly to do with the rise of mass production in the 19th century. For the first time in history, the rapid advances in mass printing techniques, most of all lithography, made it more effortless to distribute visual imagery, such as pictures of artworks, across Europe, and even the world. Moreover, in the latter part of the 19th century a new medium, photography, emerged. Postcards with pictures also became popular and a wider set of people got familiar with a wider range of visual imagery than ever before. At the same period, it became more common for the artists to study abroad, travel to artists’ communities and thus exchange ideas, interact, and paint together.
For example, the popular international religious imagery had a great effect on the themes and visual composition of the Finnish altar paintings in the late 19th century. The publication of Christian images as prints was a successful business. Reproductions of religious art by famous artists, such as Carl Bloch, Heinrich Hofmann, and Ary Scheffer were sold in large numbers and several formats from pictured Bibles to postcards. This undoubtedly had an effect in the popularity of certain motifs and even unifying the visual preferences.
The art and cultural historian Aby Warburg (1866–1929) talked about the survival of “archetypal” images, Pathosformel, their vital force and power. What were the qualities and themes of the pictures that spread most effectively? Were there differences between Nordic countries or between artist’s preferences?
Keywords: 19th century—art—visual culture—artistic networks—mass production—lithography—artists’ colonies—style—survival of images
Session chair:
Ringa Takanen, Postdoc, Art History, University of Turku, Finland
Date: Tuesday, October 21st
Time: 10.45–12.15
Location: F3006, 3rd Floor
Papers:
Robert Wilhelm Ekman’s History Paintings in a Transnational and Interartistic Network of Images (Petra Lehtoruusu, Curator, Ateneum Art Museum)
The Art of Copying: drawing manual Cours de dessin in 19th century Finnish art education (Laura Nissinen, Doctor of Art, Independent Researcher)
The Migration and Changes of the Funeral Boat Motif in the 19th Century Nordic Art (Ringa Takanen, Postdoc, Art History, University of Turku)
Artists have always travelled and therefore contributed to the circulation and development of Art. The circulation movement may be understood as an educational process with the intention of contributing to the enlightenment of the public as well as of the individual. For some of the artists it has been a question of exploring the new continents, finding inspiration or education, while others have been driven from their homes due to wars, famine, or lack of work. Whatever the reasons might have been, artists have always been circulating around the World. While women artists have had a more disguised position compared to their male colleagues, they have yet developed, contributed to, and been a part of, “the Nordic Art”. In the session we define “Nordic Art” as art made by artists from the Nordic countries, but the art itself does not necessarily have to be created there.
This session highlights the questions regarding the artistry of women artists, to discuss how their artistry contributed to the circulations and development of “the Nordic Art” at the turn of the 20th century. At the same time, those decisions on the artistry could become a step further in the progress of the artist’s own development and social mobility. Which individual or collective forces, such as institutions or patrons, had an impact on Art’s circulation and development towards the concept of “a Nordic Art”? Was the artist given certain options to a personal development and mobility through working for and promoting “a Nordic Art” within or outside the geographic Nordic? Did the geographical borders around the countries even have an impact, or not, on how the art and artists circulated?
Keywords: “The Nordic Art”—women artists—circulation—the shift of the 20th century—crossing borders
Session chairs:
Kerstin Lind, PhD TemaQ, Linköping University, Sweden
Karin Ström Lehander, Researcher, PhD Student, Åbo Akademi University, Finland
Date: Tuesday, October 21st
Time: 9.00–10.30
Location: F3006, 3rd Floor
Papers:
Vera Nilsson in a Nordic context (Annika Gunnarsson, PhD, Curator of Prints and Drawings, Moderna Museet; Matilda Olof-Ors, B.A. in Art History from Stockholm University, Curator of Swedish and Nordic Art, Moderna Museet)
Emma Toll and Brita Nordencreutz, Two Swedish Artists’ Fascination of Spain (Anna-Lena Jönsson, Master of Arts in Art History from Uppsala University, Librarian, Eskilstuna Library)
The Swedish Artist Tyra Kleen—a constant seeker (Karin Ström Lehander, Researcher, PhD Student, Åbo Akademi University)
This session explores the 1990s as a period of heightened international interest in contemporary art from the Nordic countries. Since this time, a vibrant young art scene has emerged on the global stage, with several cities in the North being designated as European Capitals of Culture. Art critics enthusiastically described this phenomenon as a “Nordic miracle” and referred to it as a “Scandinavian wave”. However, alongside increasing global interconnectedness, regional labels began to face issues of legitimacy. Many artists responded by critically engaging with regional attributions and the legacy of National Romanticism in their work.
This raises several questions: How have Nordic artists presented and continue to present their work during this period of growing international attention? How do their practices engage with the construction of “Nordicness”? What concepts and ideas have been employed to present and contextualize contemporary Nordic art in exhibitions? What strategies did curators use to position Nordic art within the global art scene? Moreover, the “Nordic” has become a potent label in place branding and the promotion of cultural production in various forms, including film (Nordic noir) and food (Nordic cuisine). How do these branding strategies differ from the contexts of the visual arts?
In this session, we discuss, for example:
Keywords: contemporary art—curation of art exhibitions—art criticism—place branding—comparative analysis
Session chairs:
Katharina Alsen, Research Associate, Hamburg University of Music and Theatre, Germany
Maike Teubner, PhD, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Germany
Date: Monday, October 20th
Time: 11.00–12.30
Location: F3017, 3rd Floor
Papers:
Reconstructing and Deconstructing the Nordic Miracle (Jonas Ekeberg, Arts and Culture Norway, Oslo)
Decentring Nordic Homogeneity: the politics of exhibitions in the early 2000s (Line Ellegaard, PhD, Department of Arts and Cultural Studies, University of Copenhagen)
Interplay Between Art, Institutions, and Socio-Economic Change: the case of the exhibition Monument in Riga (1995) (Andra Silapētere, Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art, Riga)
Since the 19th century, the Nordic countries have had large-scale manufacturing of prefabricated housing, aimed at a global market. Significant quantities of wooden houses were exchanged in between the Nordic countries as well as exported to destinations globally. From the beginning, the buildings were shipped as humanitarian aid after natural disasters and used within contexts of colonization. This mobility continues into the present day, when questions regarding sustainable crisis shelters and affordable housing are as pressing as ever.
This session explores wider connections between producers and receivers of Nordic prefabricated housing through questions on history, ideologies, production, reception, and planning. Due to their temporary nature as well as destinations abroad, the houses have generally not been given much place in national canons on art history, and research in the prefabricated Nordic houses has mainly been discussed within national contexts.
This session includes papers discussing:
Keywords: prefabricated housing—export—mobility—cultural heritage—reconstruction
Session chairs:
Mia Åkerfelt, PhD, University Lecturer in Art History, Åbo Akademi University, Finland
Tzafrir Fainholtz, PhD, Åbo Akademi University, Finland
Martti Veldi, PhD, Estonian University of Life Sciences, Landscape Architecture, Estonia
Date: Monday, October 20th
Time: 16.00–17.30
Location: F3010, 3rd Floor
Papers:
Building the Arctic Fur Trade: architecture, prefabrication, and the Hudson’s Bay Company in Inuit Nunangat (Samuel Dubois, PhD Candidate in History, Theory, and Criticism of Architecture, MIT Department of Architecture)
Prefabricated Cultural Diplomacy: Nordic housing in postwar Australia, 1948–1955 (Mark Ian Jones, Faculty of Arts, Design & Architecture, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia)
NORHOUSE: exporting Norwegian know-how to the developing world (Maryia Rusak, Professorship of Architecture Theory, Institute for Architectural Design, Art and Theory, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology)
The Prefabricated Gift: 300 Swedish houses in Bornholm (Erik Tonning Jensen, Anna Wahlöö & Erik Sigge, Lund University)
This session meets the overreaching heading “Why so Nordic?” with a critical reflection on the rural geographies typical for large parts of the Nordic countries. One of the myths in art history is that modernity is an urban phenomenon and that the rural exist outside of modernity. Even though the twentieth-century city was important to modernist artists, many also lived and worked in the modern countryside, either temporary or long term, for retreat and relief, solitary or in artist colonies or as part of other kinds of collective creative communities. The tendency to characterize or represent the rural as empty and untouched, reflects an idea of the rural as a site to observe and visit, not as a place to live. To idealize the countryside as a timeless and harmonious pastoral scene can lead to ideas of rural purity, which is a traditional component in nationalism. In recent interdisciplinary research, the rural is considered more as an active and complex site of modernity. Rural modernity is however not simply about the visualization of the impact of industry in the countryside, even though infrastructure, communication, and transport services, were crucial for artists residing in non-urban areas with long distances. It is also about people and their modern way of life; networks, collaboration, and knowledge about the particular everyday life and culture of a place.
Keywords: rural modernism—rural geographies—landscape—everyday life and visual culture
Session chairs:
Kesia E. Halvorsrud (PhD), Researcher, KODE Art Museums, Bergen, Norway
Tove Haugsbø (PhD), Senior Curator, Astrupsenteret, KODE Art Museums, Bergen, Norway
Date: Monday, October 20th
Time: 14.00–15.30
Location: F3004, 3rd Floor
Papers:
From Boundary to Symbol: the visual evolution of rural fences in Finnish art, 1890s–1950s (Carlos Idrobo, University of Turku)
Local, National, or Nordic Landscapes? Lakes and seas between modernity and identity in late 19th century visual imagination (Emiliana Konopka, PhD, University of Gdańsk)
Power Up and Change: the hydro powered Norwegian industrial town of Rjukan as a rural artistic force field 1910–1940 (Unni Tandberg, Independent Researcher)
This session is connected to an ongoing research and exhibition project at the Ateneum Art Museum. The project’s aim is to shed light on northern women’s interest in esoteric movements such as magic, theosophy, spiritualism, and anthroposophy, and their significant role in the heterogenic fields of occulture and modern art. The project adopts approaches from art history, study of religion, and gender studies. The topic is examined, for instance, from the perspective of various esoteric movements, communities, and networks, as well as by shedding light on mythical conceptions of the North. The purpose of this project is also to explore how notions of “northernness”, Nordic identity, and nationalism are interconnected with esotericism and occulture. Previously, this issue has typically been associated with a masculine ideal and has primarily been explored in relation to art created by men. Introducing women’s art into this discussion will, therefore, provide a fresh outlook. We discuss the role of esotericism in the work of both well-known and previously unknown Nordic women artists and explore previously neglected networks of women artists in the Nordic countries and internationally.
Keywords: esotericism—occulture—Nordic identity—modernism—women artists
Session chairs:
Marja Lahelma, Docent, University of Helsinki, Chief Curator at Ateneum Art Museum, Helsinki, Finland
Nina Kokkinen, Research Doctor, The Donner Institute, Finland
Date: Monday, October 20th
Time: 14.00–15.30
Location: F3006, 3rd Floor
Papers:
Island Fluidity and Botany in Hilma af Klint’s Watercolors (Jadranka Ryle, Stari Grad Museum, PhD in Art History, University of Manchester)
From The Darkness In Dance: Frauke’s Shining Light Trilogy (Emily Kivistö, MA in Art History, Researcher at Imaginary Lab, University of Copenhagen)
Secret Women: female artists in Estonia at the beginning of the 20th century and esotericism as an opportunity in search for creativity, alternative truths, and social innovation (Liis Pählapuu, Freelance Art Historian)
This session addresses the work of Nordic-born artists who embedded themselves outside Scandinavia at significant moments in their artistic careers as new, modernist modes of expression emerged across the world. Norwegian artist Edvard Munch, for example, took residence in France and Germany, absorbing novel ideas about light, color, and expression from his foreign counterparts, yet remained famously “Norwegian”. Decades later, Swedish painter Carl Oscar Borg immersed himself among California impressionists and was eventually adopted into a Native American tribe before returning home to Sweden, where he continued his adherence to Swedenborgian philosophy.
A transcultural theoretical approach, first defined by Cuban scholar Fernando Ortiz (1940), offers a means to advance an understanding of the complex—and often ambiguous—intercultural exchanges taking place among artists in an increasingly mobile world, exchanges made visible through the art objects themselves as artifacts of those processes. In what ways did Scandinavian artists incorporate non-Nordic artistic practices while still retaining a decidedly Nordic sensibility? To what extent did they, in turn, exert influence on artists in the host countries they frequented? What evidence might be found in the objects they produced?
This panel, Nordic/Not Nordic, features papers that explore the work of Scandinavian artists who have grappled with the complex questions of Nordic artistic identity while immersed in modernist aesthetic spheres outside their homelands.
Keywords: travel—expatriate—transcultural
Session chair:
Mary Peterson Zundo, Lecturer, History of Art and Visual Culture, University of California, Santa Cruz, United States
Date: Monday, October 20th
Time: 16.00–17.30
Location: F3006, 3rd Floor
Papers:
Maison Watteau and the Negotiation of Transregional Scandinavian Artistic Identity in Paris (Jessica Sjöholm Skrubbe, Professor of Art History, Department of Culture and Aesthetics, Stockholm University)
Interwar Political Journals and Transcultural Artistic Exchange in Scandinavia and Beyond (Oliver Wiant Rømer Holme, Novo Nordisk Foundation Mads Øvlisen, PhD Fellow in Art History, University of Copenhagen)
In Search of the Modern: the mobility of Scandinavian sculptors and the materiality of sculpture, c. 1880–1905 (Mari Tossavainen, PhD, Grant-Funded Researcher, Department of Cultures, University of Helsinki, Helsinki Institute of Urban and Regional Studies)
The tradition of writing national art histories is a contested legacy that continues to shape as well as limit our knowledge of pre-modern periods. While ideas of hierarchies of center and periphery still dominate Nordic art historical surveys, we now know that cultural heterogeneity and the migration of images, people, objects, and ideas are constant features of our visual and material culture.
To give just a few examples, the training of pre-modern artists and craftsmen was based on geographical mobility and global influences. The courts of Stockholm and Copenhagen were centers of artistic production that celebrated expressions from all over Europe. Artists and craftsmen from other backgrounds were particularly valued. At the same time, Denmark and Sweden were also part of the European colonial project, both in their ambitions to conquer and rule geographical areas within and outside Europe to be turned into provinces and colonies, as well as in the plundering of, for example, Sámi objects to be collected in cabinets of curiosities. Furthermore, the printing revolution and global trade allowed popular European images to be distributed, circulated, adapted, and translated worldwide. Nevertheless, many histories of migration and exchange remain to be researched.
For this session, divided into two parts, we gather papers with transnational, regional, and non-hierarchical perspectives on the production, uses, and meanings of art, visual and material culture. The first slot deals with moving objects and images in the period from the Bronze Age to late medieval times. The second slot discusses cultural exchanges and connections in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Keywords: pre-modern periods—destabilizing hierarchies between center and periphery—questioning national art history writing—migration—exchange
Ylva Haidenthaller, Postdoctoral Researcher, Division of Art History and Visual Studies, Lund University, Sweden
Charlotta Krispinsson, Researcher, The School of Culture and Education, Södertörn University, Sweden
Clara Strömberg, PhD Candidate, Department of Culture and Aesthetics, Stockholm University, Sweden
Date: Wednesday, October 22nd
Time: 10.45–12.15 + 13.45–15.15
Location: F3017, 3rd Floor
Papers:
Slot I: Moving Objects and Images
Nordic Bronze Age, the Forgotten Origin of Early Celtic Art? (Virginie Defente, Senior Lecturer, Rennes 2 University)
The Measure of a Saint: size, movement, and meaning in St. Olaf pilgrim badges (Cecily Hughes, Doctoral Candidate and Curatorial Research Assistant, Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Museum of Art)
Nordic Unicorn—unicorn hunting motif and its migration to the pictorial programs of late medieval churches in Finland and the Swedish Upland region (Millamari Kalliola, PhD Candidate in Art History, University of Jyväskylä)
Slot II: Cultural Exchanges and Connections
The Garden in Schering Rosenhane’s Hortus Regius: Swedish and Dutch artistic exchange in the 1600s (Elin Bergman, Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Culture and Aesthetics, Stockholm University)
Portraits in Motion: printed celebrity culture and the European portrait market from a Stockholm perspective (Ylva Haidenthaller, PhD, Postdoctoral Researcher, Art History and Visual Studies, Lund University)
Embodied Encounters: artistic form and colonial power in seventeenth-century ethnographic portraits (Zoe Robakiewicz, MA in Art History, University of Copenhagen)
This session explores public art policies and their relationship to contemporary forms of governance in the Nordic countries and their outcomes. The papers of this session address public art in relation to changing political ideals, using both historical and contemporary examples.
The session will examine how public art policies have changed since the beginning of the 21st century, in light of the “post-welfare” phase: i.e., deregulation and a governance approach aligned with the private market. It will address how policy decisions affect the artistic outcome and how public art is treated in relation to its physical context. Is it mere placed into an environment, or has it already played a role in the decision-making process?
In Sweden there is a political will to increase collaboration between artists, architects, real estate companies, and urban planners under the umbrella of “designed lived environment”. While integration of art in society responds to historical demands, there are concerns about the instrumentalization of art under an “environmental mode of governance”, prioritizing management of spaces and behaviors with economic and political interests.
Historically, public art in the Nordic countries has been seen as a manifestation of the welfare state’s commitment to ensuring equal access to culture and encouraging citizen participation in the development of democratic culture. Today, both governance and cultural policy have changed, as have the ways art is conceived. How has this affected public art? Do we find the same pattern in all Nordic countries? Have the previous similarities in public art policy changed since the decline of the Nordic cultural model?
Keywords: public art—deregulation—designed lived environment—integration of the arts—post-welfare state
Session chairs:
Håkan Nilsson, Professor of Art History, Södertörn University, Sweden
Oscar Svanelid, Postdoc Researcher in Art History, Swedish Research Council International Postdoc Grant, Södertörn University/Oslo University
Date: Tuesday, October 21st
Time: 9.00–10.30
Location: F3004, 3rd Floor
Papers:
Institutions and the Governing of Public Space—the changing policies of architecture museums in Finland, Norway, and Sweden (Christina Pech, PhD, Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of Art and Ideas, University of Oslo)
Creating Frameworks for the Ephemeral: the governance of temporary art in public spaces in Denmark (Sarah Pihl Petersen, Analyst, Danish Institute for Cultural Policy Analysis; Jens Christian Nielsen, Head of Analysis and Research, Danish Institute for Cultural Policy Analysis)
Challenging the Parameters of Time and Place—recent experimental public art projects in Swedish municipalities (Molly Sjögren, PhD Student, Södertörn University)
Exhibitions are an important medium of international cultural exchange and diplomacy. When exhibitions are sent abroad or received as representatives of nations or related to geopolitics, they are often associated with definitions such as “the Nordic” which can be both a fact and fiction. This was significant towards the end of the Cold War when cultural diplomacy had become an established element of the conflict, as the Nordic-Baltic region held strategic importance. After 1989, the situation underwent radical changes with the establishment of new nations, alliances, and practices. Across the Nordic countries, the former socialist states and the new Baltic republics, many kinds of exhibitions and related activities (artist meetings, festivals, cultural programs, etc.) were undertaken; some still active, some forgotten today—in a time of new threats in the region.
The panel include presentations of new research on cultural diplomacy in the field of the arts, addressing topics related to foreign art and design exhibitions in the Nordic countries, Nordic exhibitions in other countries as well as international events and networks. The focus is on the later phase of the Cold War, the transition phase of “1989” and the post-cold-war era of the 1990s. Presentations are dealing with cultural diplomacy and the Nordic in today’s context are also included. Geographically, the panel aims at both the Nordic countries and activities to and from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, Poland, and Germany. The presentations will focus on the role of exhibitions, funding bodies, economic structures, political organizations, NGOs, art institutions, and artists as diplomatic actors.
Keywords: cultural diplomacy—art and design exhibitions—Nordic-Baltic area—exhibition histories/studies—contemporary art—cultural activities—Cold War—“the long 1989”
Session chairs:
Kristian Handberg, Assistant Professor, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Maija Koskinen, Academy Research Fellow, University of Helsinki, Finland
Camilla Larsson, Senior Lecturer, Södertörn University, Sweden
Date: Wednesday, October 22nd
Time: 10.45–12.15 + 13.45–15.15
Location: Small Hall, F4050, 4th Floor
Papers:
Slot I: Interactions in the Changing Landscape of the Nordic–Baltic, around 89
Nordic-Baltic Architecture Triennials as an Agent of Professional Exchange and Cultural Diplomacy (Ingrid Ruudi, Senior Researcher, Estonian Academy of Arts, Institute of Art History and Visual Culture)
Subversive Politics? Nordic Contemporary Art in the Baltic States in the early 1990s (Annika Öhrner, Associate Professor in Art History, Södertörn University)
Curating the “Nordic” after 1989: the North as part of the global art world in exhibitions in Europe (Maike Teubner, PhD, Postdoctoral Researcher, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg)
Slot II: Exchanges between the Nordic countries and the Superpowers, 1970–1990s
Uzbekistani Art and the Soviet Cultural Days in Malmö 1975: cultural exchange or propaganda (Joel Odebrant, PhD, Postdoc in Art History, University of Copenhagen)
“Scandinavia Today” and US Cultural Diplomacy 1982–1983 (Marta Edling, Professor of the History and Theory of Art, Södertörn University)
The End of the Century: Iceland-USSR cultural relations and the definition of contemporary art towards the end of the Cold War (Heiða Björk Árnadóttir, Adjunct Lecturer, University of Iceland)
What constitutes “the Nordic”, and how does it engage our senses within the realms of art and art history? This session explores the implications of a multisensory approach for understanding Nordic art, here defined as art that is inspired by, or problematizes, themes of nature, cultural history, or contemporary life and culture in the Nordic region. Can a sensory perspective enable us to encounter the Nordic in art and exhibitions in novel ways?
The emphasis on visual culture has significantly broadened the field of art history, fostering a less hierarchical and more empirical outlook on what constitutes compelling objects of study. However, in this process, the sensory dimensions of experiencing art may have been overlooked. Art history transcends the visual: our encounters with artworks engage all the senses. As W.J.T. Mitchell (2005) notes: “There are no visual media”, indicating that all visual experiences simultaneously evoke other sensory reactions and memories. Over the past two decades, there has been a growing interest in the multisensory aspects of art. Investigations into olfactory, auditory, gustatory, and tactile dimensions reveal that sensory communication holds significant potential for enriching our understanding of both historical and contemporary art.
This session examines how non-visual aspects are employed in artworks and exhibitions within a Nordic context, with papers addressing olfactory, gustatory, auditory, tactile, or multisensory artworks and exhibition designs. Case studies range from early twentieth-century explorations of the “modern sensorium” to contemporary ecological art, multisensory scenography, and haptic engagements with Nordic landscapes. “The Nordic” is approached variously as a geographical location, a cultural and artistic heritage, an environmental condition, and a broader source of inspiration.
Keywords: multisensory art—sensory activation—olfactory art—gustatory art—haptic art— auditory art
Session chair:
Dr. Viveka Kjellmer, Associate Professor of Art History and Visual Studies, Department of Cultural Sciences, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
Date: Monday, October 20th
Time: 11.00–12.30 + 14.00–15.30
Location: F3010, 3rd Floor
Papers:
Slot I:
Nordic Scent and Multisensory Exhibition Design: understanding and describing olfaction in art (Viveka Kjellmer, Associate Professor of Art History and Visual Studies, University of Gothenburg)
The Modern Sensorium of Per Krohg and Isaac Grünewald (MaryClaire Pappas, Professor of Art History, Savannah College of Art and Design)
An Inner and Outer Space: a 1970s multisensory Norwegian installation (Frida Forsgren, Associate Professor in Art History, University of Agder, Norway)
Olfactory Orientations and Disorientations of the Nordic in Contemporary Art (Karin Silverin, PhD Candidate in Art History and Visual Studies, Gothenburg University)
Slot II:
Scenography of Sustainability: embodied encounters and agency in the exhibition spaces of Louisiana Museum of Contemporary Art (Olga Nikolaeva, PhD, Independent Scholar)
How to Dance with a Tree: Nordic ecological art in the times of climate change (Mårten Snickare, Professor of Art History, Department of Culture and Aesthetics, Stockholm University)
Experiencing Icelandic Snowscapes across the Haptic Sense (Ivan Juarez, Assistant Professor, Researcher, and Lecturer, Faculty of Planning and Design, The Agricultural University of Iceland)
Scenographic Snow: art historical approaches to Henrik Ibsen’s John Gabriel Borkman (Astrid von Rosen, Professor of Art History and Visual Studies, Director of the Centre for Critical Heritage Studies, University of Gothenburg)
The Nordic countries are often celebrated for their high levels of gender equality and are recognized globally as leaders in this area. The Søsterskap session aims to critically examine the concept of the welfare state while spotlighting the significant contributions of contemporary Nordic women photographers. This session will explore how these artists interrogate and subvert normative constructs of gender through an intersectional lens. Additionally, the session will amplify marginalized voices that have historically been overlooked in both art and societal discussions. We will specifically focus on the exhibition Søsterskap—Contemporary Nordic Photography, which took place in 2023 at Les Rencontres de la photographie in Arles, France.
In this context, the artists will be recognized as key agents of social change, navigating and articulating critical issues related to gender roles, labor dynamics, migration, and social structures. Through this lens, we can thoroughly investigate the diverse experiences of women photographers, illuminating their vital role in creating culturally and politically charged dialogues within the Nordic welfare state. Situating their work within broader theoretical frameworks will allow the session to engage in transversal conversations drawing on insights from scholars such as Judith Butler, Abigail Solomon-Godeau, and Kimberlé Crenshaw, alongside more recent Indigenous voices like Rauna Kuokkanen. Participants will be invited to delve into the complexities of representation within the welfare state and to reflect on how these dynamics challenge existing power hierarchies.
Keywords: Nordic photography—sisterhood—gender—intersectionality—welfare state—photo theory—contemporary art—contemporary photography
Session chairs:
Æsa Sigurjónsdóttir, PhD, Professor, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland
Anna Tellgren, PhD, Curator of Photography and Head of Research, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
Date: Tuesday, October 21st
Time: 10.45–12.15
Location: F3010, 3rd Floor
Papers:
Advantages and Challenges of Sisterhood (Anna-Kaisa Rastenberger, PhD, Director, The Finnish Museum of Photography, Helsinki)
Embodied Narratives—exploring Søsterskap through an intersectional lens (Æsa Sigurjónsdóttir, PhD, Professor, University of Iceland, Reykjavík)
Facets of Care in Contemporary Photography (Marthe T. Fjellestad, MA, Curator, Perspektivet Museum, Tromsø)
Feminist Strategies in the Works of the Photographer Tuija Lindström (Anna Tellgren, PhD, Curator of Photography and Head of Research, Moderna Museet, Stockholm)
The session focuses on artist collectives and collective artmaking in the Nordic countries, especially in the 1970s. The decade is often associated with a polarized atmosphere, radical political positions versus reactionary attitudes. The collectivity that set in, was a counterforce that tested the unity of Modernism, and sought to actively reform art and society.
The 1970s served as a divider, after which society and the economy emphasized human-centered, individualistic ideals of growth, consumption, conformity, and neoliberal market economy. By looking at the activities of the artist collectives of the 1970s and the artistic and social aspirations that motivated them, it is possible to build an understanding of alternative futures.
The currents of student radicalism, experimentalism, and interdisciplinary artistic collaboration of the early avant-garde were carried on in the communal efforts of the 1970s. We can assume that the ideas of collectivity continue in the 2020s, for example in the actions of Extinction Rebellion, artivism, and DIY activism.
The session asks whether there is something particularly Nordic in the Nordic artists collectives’ activities that Nordic democracy and welfare state model made possible.
Keywords: collectivity—activism and art—democracy—welfare state—feminism—alternative economies
Session chairs:
Riikka Haapalainen, Senior University Lecturer in the Department of Art and Media, Aalto University, Finland
Hanna Johansson, Professor, Contemporary Art Research, Academy of Fine Arts, Finland
Riikka Niemelä, Researcher, University of Turku, Finland
Date: Wednesday, October 22nd
Time: 10.45–12.15
Location: F3006, 3rd Floor
Papers:
Art and Life—an investigation of Irma Salo Jæger’s socially engaged art in the late 1960s and early 1970s (Hanne Cecilie Gulstad, Curator, Kunstsilo)
Collective Art Making and Environmental Change in the Nordic Context in the 1970s and 1980s (Hanna Johansson, Professor, Contemporary Art Research, Academy of Fine Arts)
Pink, Feminism, and Community: women’s building forum at the exhibition Boplats 80 (Frida Rosenberg, Curator of 20th Century Architecture, ArkDes)
The ideas and artistic influences of the Renaissance movement reached the Nordic countries gradually from the late 15th century and onwards. An influx of artists, architects, and scholars brought work and knowledge to the North, and patrons who seeked new ways to communicate drew inspiration from their continental forerunners. The art and architecture of, what have been called the Nordic Renaissance, have in many ways been regarded as a regional or national phenomena, but the ideals and role models were always found abroad.
Research on Renaissance Scandinavia has recently increased, and the purpose of this session is to share new results regarding art and architecture with focus on space, cultural transfer, material culture, re-use, anachronic aspects, and shifted meanings. From the late 15th century until the mid-17th century the continental Renaissance inspired and influenced the art and architecture of the Church, the princely courts and the nobility in the Nordic countries. The Reformation gave rise to new interiors in both churches and private environments, from small chapels to cathedrals and in private domestic spaces, representative palaces, and ship cabins. In what way do the Nordic Renaissance differ from the continental role models and can we actually talk about a Nordic Renaissance?
Keywords: Nordic Renaissance—space—cultural transfer—material culture—re-use—anachronic aspects—shifted meaning
Session chairs:
Johan Eriksson, Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor at Department of Art History, Uppsala University, Sweden
Henrik Widmark, Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor at Department of Art History, Uppsala University, Sweden
Date: Tuesday, October 21st
Time: 9.00–10.30 + 10.45–12.15
Location: F3005, 3rd Floor
Papers:
Slot I: Paintings
Locating the Renaissance in the Early 16th Century Church Wall Paintings of Finland: case of the Rymättylä Church (Janika Aho, PhD Candidate, Art History, Department of Cultures, University of Helsinki)
Portraiture in 16th Century Sweden and Finland (Anna Franck, MA, University of Turku)
What an Early Portrait of Queen Christina Might Tell Us about the Renaissance in the Nordic Countries (Charlotta Krispinsson, Senior Lecturer, Södertörn University)
Slot II: Grave Monuments and Gardens
Representations of Children on Grave Monuments during the Early Modern Period (1500–1700) in Sweden (Urszula Frick, PhD Candidate, Department of Art History, Uppsala University)
Garden Imagery 1475–1525: the case of the prints and altarpieces from Flanders (Anna Andréasson Sjögren, PhD, Swedish Historical Archaeologist)
Collecting Plants and Prints: botanical Herbaria and literature among women in the Vasa dynasty circa 1550–1650 (Elin Bergman, Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Culture and Aesthetics, Stockholm University)
All the Nordic countries have their own art and photography histories based on methodological nationalism. These stories have contributed to establishing largely male dominated canons and media hierarchies. This panel aims at challenging established canons by forefronting a specific, trans-Nordic photographic culture via four papers that all shed light on the exceptional early photographic studio culture in the Nordic countries (1860–1920) in which women took an active part. This was a period in which the medium was new, and canons not yet established. Around 1880 around one third of all registered photographers in the Nordic countries were women. Many of them owned their own studios, some hired only women assistants, some lived in lifelong relationships with female partners. We argue that photography as a profession became a specific Nordic female culture of independence and freedom. Some were not only engaged in aesthetic production, but also in political struggles, and in social work directed to improve women’s living conditions in general. All speakers contribute to the edited volume Striving for Independence. Nordic Women Studio Photographers, 1860–1920 (De Gryuter, 2026).
What kind of photographs did early professional women photographers produce? Are there any connections between politics and aesthetics in their photographic productions? How do we detect and address possible queer connections in their work? How can we “do Nordic art history” by putting the medium of photography and women in the forefront? And which new insights can be gained from replacing a national with a trans-Nordic perspective?
Keywords: history of photography—women’s liberation—studio photography—spinster culture—queer history—new Nordic histories
Session chairs:
Mette Sandbye, Professor of Photography Studies, Department of Arts and Cultural Studies, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Sigrid Lien, Professor of Art History and Photography Studies, Department of Linguistic, Literary and Aesthetic Studies, University of Bergen, Norway
Date: Tuesday, October 21st
Time: 9.00–10.30
Location: F3010, 3rd Floor
Papers:
Hildur Larsson: crossing borders and pushing boundaries (Mervi Löfgren Autti, Doctor of Arts (DA), Free Researcher)
Anna Schiöth and Engel Jensen: two different pathfinders in Icelandic photography (Sigrún Alba Sigurðardóttir, PhD student, Faculty of Languages and Cultures, University of Iceland)
Julie Laurberg: court photographer and women’s liberation activist (Mette Sandbye, Professor of Photography Studies, University of Copenhagen)
Magdalene Norman: spinster queerness—a photo-autobiography of life and love (Sigrid Lien, Professor of Art History and Photography Studies, University of Bergen)