Open Call: Art, Colonialism, Indigeneity. A Time for Truth and Reconciliation?
Open Call and Digital Dialogues
Sámiráđđi [The Saami Council], OCA and KORO have partnered to develop a project reflecting upon the shortfalls and opportunities found in the model of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission as a tool (current and future) to counter the experience of colonialism by the Indigenous people of the Fennoscandian region, the Sámi. How does a Truth and Reconciliation process drive the needed healing of colonial wounds that have been inflicted across the indivisible relation between Sámi bodies, lands and spiritual beliefs, and in so doing how does it bring closer together Sámi and Norwegian citizens whose perspectives may today appear at times irreconcilable?
This is a two-part project consisting of an Open Call to commission an art-work in the public space of the city of Oslo, and Digital Dialogues disseminated throughout the country. The project situates itself independent of, but in relation to, the formal process of The Truth and Reconciliation Commission initiated in Norway 2018 and due to conclude in 2022, but also reflects upon the successes and failures of a similar process conducted in Turtle Island Canada, in 2015.
Art, Colonialism, Indigeneity. A Time for Truth and Reconciliation? casts a bold gaze at the impact of historic and current colonial processes endured by the Sámi people, normalised in broad terms by Norwegian society, and questions how a Truth and Reconciliation commission can endeavour to address them. It asks how the visual arts can bring to the attention of society the following two key questions: To what extent does Norwegian society today recognise the inter-connected experiences of epistemicide and ecocide that have been and are a direct consequence of state enforced colonial policies and infrastructures? And if so, to what extent do Norwegian citizens consider it to be their civic duty, together with Sámi fellow citizens, to play a collective role in converting into a reality the ambitions contingent with such life-affirming terms as ‘truth’ and ‘reconciliation’?
After considered dialogues amongst the partners Art, Colonialism, Indigeneity. A Time for Truth and Reconciliation? launches with an Open Call to Sámi artists who would like to develop a permanent or time-based art project in the public space of the city of Oslo with critical and aesthetic thinking around these questions. The format or process that such a project might take is open.
It is important to consider the historic and political context of Oslo as a host of this Open Call: a city which witnessed the ground-breaking Sámi hunger-strikers and sit-ins of the Alta Action of 1978-1981 and which responded with overwhelming solidarity, yet a city in which there is barely a trace of such a momentous historic event; a city whose identity today is indelibly marked by a significant Sámi population and yet has no public marker to honour their contributions to society; and a city in which national policy is debated and legislated with long-lasting implications upon how Sápmi and Norway together will face the opportunities and challenges of the future to come.
The Open Call is open to all Sámi artists, across Sápmi. It will specially favour projects which centre Sámi methodologies and Sámi ways of being, doing, knowing, and seeing in presenting Sámi perspectives, and in re-considering the figure of the monument and art in the public space today.
In parallel OCA and Sámiráđđi [The Saami Council], are leading the commission of a series of Digital Dialogues which will be widely disseminated nationally, featuring Norwegian and Sámi art practitioners of different generations presenting their reflections and concerns about the possibilities and challenges of the current Truth and Reconciliation process in Norway.
Implementation of Open Call for the construction of a Sámi monument/art project in public space in Oslo.
KORO is leading the implementation of the project on the construction of a Sámi monument/art project in public space in Oslo. After the Open Call, the jury will decide which five artists will be invited to compete for the assignment. Furthermore, the jury selects which artist will be chosen to carry out the assignment. The winner of the competition will be announced on January 15, 2022.
The art project/monument shall be completed by June 2023.
The jury consists of representatives from the Sámiráđđi [The Saami Council], Sámi Dáiddačehpiid Searvi [The Sámi Artists’ Union], KORO and OCA.
Sámiráđđi [The Saami Council]
The Saami Council is a pan-Sámi member organization (NGO), with Sámi political and cultural member organizations in Finland, Russia, Norway, and Sweden.
Since it was founded in 1956 The Saami Council has actively dealt with Sámi policy tasks, and are one of the indigenous peoples’ organizations that have existed the longest.
The primary aim of the Saami Council is the promotion of Sámi rights and interests in the four countries where the Sámi are living. The main task of The Saami Council is to consolidate the feeling of affinity among the Sámi people, to attain recognition for the Sámi as a nation and to maintain the cultural, political, economic and social rights of the Sámi in the legislation of the four states Sápmi is divided into.
Sámi Dáiddačehpiid Searvi [The Sámi Artists' Union]
The objective of the Sami Artists Union, founded in 1979, is to be a professional organization that supports Sami artists, craftsmen and art photographers from the entire Sami area. SDS aims to protect the professional, financial, social and idealistic interests of its members.
The Steering Committee and the union’s Artistic Council are the executive bodies during the interim between the annual meetings. The Steering Committee shall ensure compliance with the intensions of and decisions adopted by the annual meeting, while the Artistic Council is responsible for carrying out the artistic evaluations. SDS is also a member of the Sami Artists Council, the umbrella organization for Sami artist associations, which has connections with the Nordic and the European Council of Artists. SDS’s purchasing consultants provide recommendations to the Sami Cultural Council’s art acquisition committee on the purchase of contemporary Sami art and Sami handicrafts.
KORO
KORO is the Norwegian state's professional body for art in public spaces and is organized as a government agency under the Ministry of Culture. The professional activity is subject to the principle of arm's length distance. KORO produces, manages, and disseminates art in public buildings and other public arenas. The collection of works of art is available to the public in about a thousand places in Norway and internationally
OCA
The Office for Contemporary Art Norway is a non-profit foundation created by the Norwegian Ministries of Culture and of Foreign Affairs in 2001. Its principle aim is to foster dialogue between art practitioners in Norway, including Sápmi, and the international arts scene, and support artists based in Norway in their activities around the world. As a result, OCA’s discursive, exhibition, publication, residency, and visitor programmes focus on bringing to Norway the plurality of practices and histories at the forefront of international artistic debates, as much as they are concerned with actively participating in such debates nationally and internationally. OCA has been responsible for Norway's contribution to the visual arts section of La Biennale di Venezia since 2001.
First phase
The application must contain:
• a short text that justifies your interest in this assignment
• portfolio with pictures or sketches of relevant artistic practice
• CV
• Application deadline is 15 September, 2021 at 1 pm (GMT + 1)
• The open Call is not remunerated
• The application must be submitted by e-mail: opencall@koro.no
Second phase
• On 30 September 2021, the jury announces the 5 finalists who will be invited to compete for a Sámi monument/artwork in a public space in Oslo
• The competition material consists of a sketch of the work(s) to be built, temporarily or permanently. The jury does not lay down guidelines for the duration of the artwork
• Competition entries are remunerated with NOK 35,000.
• 15 December 2021, is the deadline for submitting competition entries
Third phase
• The winner of the competition will be announced on 15 January 2022
• The artist invited to carry out the assignment will be delivered a total budget, from which the artist will decide the artist’s fee and the production fee accordingly to the proposal.
• The work must be completed by June 2023
Questions about the application process or assignment are directed to:
Trude Schjelderup Iversen, Curator and project manager KORO (ti@koro.no)
Katya García-Antón, Director and Chief Curator of OCA (katya.garcia-anton@oca.no)
Christina Hætta, Head of Cultural Unit of the Saami Council Cultural Unit (christina@saamicouncil.net)