Gulahallan ja birgen

The exhibition is the product of a two-year collaboration within AIDA, or Arctic Indigenous Arts and Design Archives–an archive consisting of materials taken from the practices of different craftspeople. For this exhibition, Berit Kristine Andersen Guvsám, Gunvor Guttorm, and Laila Susanna Kuhmunen have engaged in dialogue with the materials compiled within the archive. A film in which they reflect on this process will be shown at the Luleå Biennial.

The title of the exhibition, Gulahallan ja birgen, refers to sustainability, a subject the group has returned to repeatedly throughout their process. Gulahallan is often translated as “communication”, and in this exhibition, it relates to the interpersonal dimension, but also to our dialogue with nature and physical materiality. Birgen, which can broadly be defined as “making do”, connects to the group’s explorations of both perspectives, on the use of material, along with their stewardship of the knowledge preserved in the AIDA archives. In one of the group’s many collective explorations of sustainable approaches to nature, they dug up and used roots as materials for crafts. This concretised their relationships to the land, but also made them metaphorical, as they gained new understanding of their own traditions and histories.

The exhibistion in presented at Sámi Dáiddaguovddáš Foundation, the leading international centre for contemporary Sámi artists.

Berit Kristine Andersen Guvsám, who has a master’s degree from Sámi allaskuvla, works in Kautokeino today. In her duodji work, she uses materials like textiles and hides.

Gunvor Guttorm is a professor of doudji at the Sámi allaskuvla/Sámi University of Applied Sciences in Kautokeino. She does practical duodji work alongside writing about the practice of duodji and its role in Sami society.

Laila Susanna Kuhmunen takes a variety of approaches to duodji. Her explorative and experimental work happens at House of Duodji, which is based in Jokkmokk.