In Norway, we have a strong tradition of celebrating our national identity. We raise the flag and put on the bunad, or Sami jacket. But what do these symbols and rituals do to those who feel they are on the outside? Won’t what consolidates a community for some seem exclusionary for others? It is precisely this type of question that the exhibition “Chess folk costumes” addresses. SUBCULTURAL FOLK COSTUME?: Maybe you don’t feel at home in the big national community, maybe there are other communities you associate more with. Photo: Annar Bjørgli / The National Museum Christian Blandhoel has created a larger installation in which he explores folk music and the folk tradition. The installation also houses instruments that the audience can play. Photo: Annar Bjørgli / National Museum The folk costume he has created is based on a more subcultural community. Photo: Andreas Harvik / The National Museum This is a traveling exhibition created by the National Museum, and until 17 September it will be shown at the Valdres Folkemuseum in Fagernes. Originally, the project was initiated in connection with Skeivt Kulturår 2022, but the exhibition is not only about queer identity, but more generally about the experience of standing outside the norm. In the exhibition, six contemporary artists are invited to explore expressions of identity, costume and craft traditions. Despite the title, it is by no means a costume show. One of the small lofted living rooms at the folk museum is filled with colorful, expressive works. Photo: Andreas Harvik / National Museum The national costume is only a starting point for the discussion the exhibition would like to initiate. The artists work in a wide range of techniques in everything from porcelain and textiles to photography, installation and film. The loaded headdress A very eye-catching work is Håvard Kranstad’s “Koll-krona”, which consists of four large tapestries woven on a digital jacquard loom. BACKPOINT: In the tapestry we see a man fighting a bear. Here, Kranstad refers to sculptures designed by Hallingdølen Jørgen Garnaas, who in the 18th century worked as a postman and carver. Photo: Annar Bjørgli / National Museum Garnaas created small bone figures of people he saw on his various mail routes around Hallingdal. Photo: Annar Bjørgli / The National Museum The carpets hang from the ceiling, but are so long that they also lie on the floor. At first glance you might mistake it for traditional tapestries, but when you look at the work you see that both the colouring, the weaving technique and not least the circle of motifs bear the stamp of being from our time. Here, Kranstad weaves together parts of the official and hidden cultural heritage. The title itself refers, for example, to a part of folk tradition that never entered any proud narratives or was woven or embroidered into beautiful textiles, namely the silent crown that mothers of illegitimate children once had to wear. Artist and contemporary dancer Harald Baharie also explores the meaning of headgear, both symbolically and ritually. A young man with a scarf dances in a video installation. SKAUT OR BANDANA?: There are few things that trap us in a gender category like our clothes, and not least the folk costumes. Photo: Facsimile/Nasjonalmuseet The Bunad tradition is very gendered. It’s tough for the woman, while the man puts on a vest and nods. Here, Harald Baharie takes the feminine headdress and makes it his own. Photo: Faksimile/Nasjonalmuseet The many screens create an experience of Beharie dancing (naked) around one. Photo: Andreas Harvik / The National Museum As a viewer, I am surrounded by screens and get the feeling that he is dancing around me, and regularly looks at me with intense eyes. There is something ritualistic and absorbing about the experience. I get quite dizzy from standing inside the dark cubicle, and have to rush out. Cobalt Bear King Valemon I love Lin Wang’s porcelain and textile installation. It is so strange and enigmatic, and I stand and look at it for a long time. It consists of a shiny blue bear with a large blue patterned Chinese vase on its back. The bear has neither a face nor other anatomical details; we only recognize it in its basic form. It is covered in cobalt blue silk fringes that give it a synthetic feel. WATTING: Lin Wang is a Norwegian artist of Chinese origin. And in this work, as in many of her other projects, she intertwines her two cultures. Here Norwegian and Chinese industrial history is woven together in an exciting way. Photo: Annar Bjørgli / Nasjonalmuseet With the blue color decoration and the porcelain, she refers to Chinese patterns that in the 19th century flooded into Europe and brought visual art into the thousands of homes as plate decoration, made with Norwegian cobalt extracted from the cobalt mines at Modum. Photo: Annar Bjørgli / The National Museum Of course, I immediately think of Theodor Kittelsen’s famous portrayal of Kvitebjørn King Valemon. But there is no princess riding on the bear’s back, but a vase. Here, Wang intertwines Chinese porcelain tradition with a whole range of references to Norwegian folk culture. The aforementioned folk tale is one thing, but the silk fringes on the bear’s back are also inspired by cardigan scarves in the Sami folk costume. The intense blue color will surely also make many think of Harald Sohlberg’s painting “Winternight in the mountains”, which is a major work in Norwegian art history. Loose threads While Lin Wang tries to stitch together his two cultures, Márjá Karlsen is looking for parts of the family’s identity and history. In the exhibition, we can experience a strong textile and film installation that is about the grief over the parts of the Sami identity that were erased with Norwegianization in the 19th century. A name that had to be left behind, knowledge that was displaced and craft traditions that were forgotten. GRIEF: In the film, we follow Márjá Karlsen’s quest to learn various braiding and weaving techniques while she talks about her own grief and despair over parts of history that are gone. Márjá Karlsen/Nasjonalmuseet The film is projected onto a naked wadding fabric that is strung up on a birch trunk. The word “giitu” is woven into the cloth. It means thank you in Northern Sami. The traditional braided and woven ribbon hangs around the canvas. Weaving is also a motif in the film itself, and I think that the weaving is the image of her striving to collect the detached broken pieces. The only sadness is that there will always be loose threads, and threads that are gone forever. Even though “Skakke folkdrakter” is a small exhibition, I leave with a feeling of having experienced an incredible amount – strong works, interesting thoughts and difficult questions! This is an exhibition I highly recommend. SEE: Art critic Mona Pahle Bjerke talks about the exhibition in Nyhetsmorgen. The exhibition will tour Norway until 2025. In the fact box below you can see where it will be exhibited throughout the period. news reviews Title: “Chess folk costumes” Place: Valdres museum, Fagernes Artists: Márjá Karlsen, Harald Beharie, Rafiki, Lin Wang, Håvard Kranstad and Christian Blandhoel. Artistic management group: Justine Nguyen, Lars Korff Lofthus, Tuva Syvertsen and Dávvet Bruun-Solbakk, Wenche Mühleisen (advisor). Folk costume thread: Marita Mikkelsen, Liisa-Rávná Finbog, Camilla Rossing and Anna-Stina Svakko. Estimated time: 42-45 minutes. Skakke folk costumes is a traveling exhibition. These are the planned viewing locations: 2023 June 18–17. September: Valdres Folkemuseum 6 October–2 November: Guovdageainnu gilišillju – Kautokeino bygdetun November 20–17. March: Sunnfjord Museum 2024 June 23–22. September: Stiklestad National Cultural Center October 5–8 December: Bymuseet Bodø – Nordlandsmuseet 2025 January–March: Bomuldsfabriken Kunsthall, Arendal April–May: Hordaland Art Center 13 June–30. September: Hadeland Folkemuseum “Skakke folk costumes” has been developed in collaboration with, among others, the Norwegian Institute for Bunad and Folk Costume, the Valdres Museums, the Randsfjord Museum, Museum Stavanger and Bodø Cultural Capital 2024. The project is initiated by the National Museum.
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“Chess folk costumes” at Valdres museum – Reviews and recommendations
