Welcome to two artist presentations at Tromsø Art Academy
«Art, Ecology and Enchantment» by Caitlin Franzman and
«Attempts to stage a landscape» by Laura Põld
The artists are visiting Tromsø as part of the exhibition project 'Down in the Bog: Hibernation' at Tromsø Kunstforening - Romssa Dáiddasiida.
The presentations will be in English.
Caitlin Franzmann is an artist based in Brisbane, Australia. She creates installations, sonic experiences, performances, and social practice works that focus on place-based knowledge and embodied practices. She originally trained as an urban planner, working for several years in policy and strategic planning. Since 2010, she has been working with Ensayos, a collective research initiative focused on ecopolitical issues impacting Tierra del Fuego and other archipelagos.
Laura Põld is an artist, educator, and curator living in Tallinn and Vienna. She is currently working as Visiting Associate Professor at the Estonian Academy of Arts, Department of Installation and Sculpture. Põld studied ceramics at the Estonian Academy of Arts in Tallinn (BA), painting at the University of Tartu (MA) and sculptural conceptions and ceramics at the University of Art and Design, Linz (MA). Laura Põld is working in interdisciplinary crafts and sculpture-based practice. Her work explores the history of crafts, environmental history, fundamental human and more-than-human skills and needs, including community, safety and shelter. Her often large- scale installations either take over or interfere with the allocated venue and its historical and political context. Embracing neurodiversity, Põld’s practice is also an ongoing commitment to fostering awareness and inclusion for diverse perspectives in the art world.
Down in the Bog: Hibernation is the first of the three chapters of the project Down in the Bog: Thinking with Peatlands composed by Karolin Tampere.
Down in the Bog: Hibernation is an exhibition and a place for learning and sharing from peatlands around the world, arguing for the need of increased attention and care. Slowly growing, like peat forming, this is a project-in-process. The works on display, the discursive and live program, aim at large to give poetic, imaginative and dreamlike nutrition to more sturdy layers of awareness, knowledge and care. To together learn from the ecosystems of Peatlands.
The project will continue its second chapter Sporulation presented at EKKM (Estonian Contemporary Art Museum) in Tallinn opening June 14th, 2024, to return to Tromsø in September with the third and deepest layer. The symposium Thinking with Peatlands is co-curated with Camilla Fagerli and will respond to the resonances activated alongside the forming of the previous chapters. Save the date for the 3 day symposium September 27-29, 2024.
Karolin Tampere is part of the research group Worlding Northern Art (WONA) at the Faculty of Humanities, Social Sciences and Education at UiT - The Arctic University of Norway. The exhibition is part of Karolin Tampere's ongoing research as a PhD fellow in artistic research at Tromsø Art Academy - UiT The Arctic University of Norway and The Faculty of Fine Art, University of Bergen.
Image credits: Caitlin Franzmann, Mutual Making (Sacred Seeds), 2018.