Landscapes of Equality.
Panel discussion as part of the exhibition Landscapes of Belonging
4 May, 7 pm
In English
Free admission

Kathrin Becker in conversation with Áile Aikio (Sámi museum professional, Rovaniemi / Finnland), Mahret Ifeoma Kupka (Curator and Art historian, Frankfurt / M.) and Erika Stöckel (Artist, Oslo)

Duodji is often defined as a Sámi handicraft, but in fact it describes the entire Sámi artistic way of being and is thus a central cultural reference point for the indigenous people of northern Europe. Many Duodji objects are kept in collections and archives of European museums, including those in Berlin, where they cannot be touched. Kathrin Becker, director of the KINDL and co-curator of the exhibition Landscapes of Belonging, talks to the scholar Áile Aikio, who has conducted research in Duodji archives in Berlin, among other places; the artist Erika Stöckel, who refers to Duodji in her works; and the curator Mahret Ifeoma Kupka, who deals with stolen objects and ways of giving them a voice, about the meaning of these objects and possibilities for reactivating them. What contexts of meaning and what knowledge can be gained from these objects? What stories can be told? How do we deal with robbery, loss, and the gaps and wounds that have been created, and what possibilities for healing exist?

The group exhibition Landscapes of Belonging deconstructs often overlooked colonial processes within Europe and examines current forms of belonging. The accompanying discursive programme deepens the debate with a focus on curatorial practices: What ethics do the cultures of curating in Northern Europe follow, and how can a new ethics of exhibiting be combined with greater opportunities for criticism?

Luobbal-Sámmol-Aimo Áile by her Sámi name (* 1979 in Ohcejohka / Utsjoki) is a Sámi museum professional and a doctoral candidate at the University of Lapland. In her Ph.D. Aikio studies Sámi museums and scrutinizes how to indigenize and sámify museum and museum practices. Since 2019 she has been part of the multi- and cross-disciplinary research project The Ontological politics of Sámi Cultural Heritage that aims to generate novel understanding on Sámi cultural heritage and its intertwining to the processes of indigenization of society. In 2005 – 2019 Aikio has been curator in Sámi Museum Siida in Anár / Inari in Finland, first in collections and later as curator of exhibitions and museum pedagogy. Aikio is interested in indigenization and how the Sámi traditional knowledge could be reformed to a Sámi museology. Her recent publications are A Window into Vanishing Sámi Culture? Visual Representations of Sáminess in the Shared Siida Exhibition by Sámi Museum Siida and Northern Lapland's Nature Centre (2022) and Sámification and Sámi Museum (2021). In addition she has co-edited the book The Sámi world to be published in the Routledge World-series in June 2022

Mahret Ifeoma Kupka (* 1980 in Hanau) is an art scholar, freelance writer and, since 2013, curator of fashion, body and the performative at the Museum Angewandte Kunst in Frankfurt / Main. In her exhibitions, lectures, publications, and interdisciplinary projects, she addresses the issues of racism, memory culture, representation, and the decolonization of art and cultural practices in Europe and on the African continent. Kupka is co-initiator and curator of the Talking Objects Lab. She is a member of the advisory board of the Initiative of Black people in Germany (ISD) and founding member of the Neue Deutsche Museumsmacher*innen (a network of BIPoC museum practitioners in Germany). In 2015, she was awarded her PhD for a thesis on fashion blogs and the myth of the revolutionisation of fashion.

Erika Stöckel (* 1989 in Kiruna / Sweden) is an artist, based in Oslo. She is co-founder of Trailer Gallery in Umeå and the creative collective Low Standards in Oslo. She studied Fine Art at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts and the Academy of Fine Arts Umeå.
Solo exhibitions: Galleri Box, Gothenburg (2022); Galleri RAM, Oslo (2021); Galleri Konstepidemin, Gothenburg (2021); Akademirommet, Oslo (2018, in collab with Therese Frisk)
Selected group exhibitions: KINDL – Centre for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2022); K-U-K, Trondheim (2021); Kunstnerforbundet, Oslo (2021); Sven-Harrys Konstmuseum, Stockholm (2020);  Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo (2017); KHIO, Oslo (2016); Spokojna Gallery, Warsaw (2014); Friday Exit, Vienna (2014)