Public programme
Máhcaheapmi (Responses) is a new, two-year public programme by Office for Contemporary Art Norway (OCA) in partnership with Sámiráđđi / The Saami Council, reflecting on the role of art and culture in processes of truth and reconciliation for Indigenous communities. It takes the form of four Indigenous-led gatherings with participants from Sápmi and other geographies worldwide to be unfolded 2024–25, followed by a symposium and publication in autumn 2025. The first gathering will take place in Mexico in April 2024, on the lands of the P’urehpecha nation.
In 2023 Norway’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) published its long-awaited report into the country’s historical treatment of Sámi, Kven and Forest Finn communities, which highlighted amongst other things the systematic suppression and erasure of their cultural traditions by the Norwegian state, a policy known officially as “Norwegianisation”.
Through a series of Indigenous-led public gatherings, Máhcaheapmi (Responses) aims to disseminate knowledge and critical awareness within the art field in relation to the TRC’s report. Each Máhcaheapmi (Responses) gathering will bring together a variety of practitioners from Sápmi to explore possibilities for self-determination and resistance through art, as well as bridging an ongoing knowledge gap between citizens of the Nordic countries and Sápmi. Máhcaheapmi (Responses) as a whole aims to contribute to current discussions on the decentering of national and Europatriarchal identity models within contemporary art and the kinds of institutional transformation this might require.
Máhcaheapmi (Responses) is part of a larger collaboration, Art, Colonialism, lndigeneity: A Time for Truth and Reconciliation?, developed and organized by OCA, Sámiráđđi / Saami Council and KORO—Public Art Norway. It runs parallel to KORO’s initiative Proposals which will develop new propositions for art projects in public space by five Sámi artists or artist groups.
The first iteration of Máhcaheapmi (Responses) takes place in April–May 2024 in Mexico.
“Practices of Sovereignty. Art and Resistance in the Sámi and P’urehpecha Nations” is a two-part gathering—consisting of a residency in P’urehpecha territories and a conference in Mexico City—bringing together discussions and artistic practices from the Sámi and P’urehpecha nations. This gathering is a collaboration between Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC) and OCA.
The residency will stage a series of exchanges between the Sámi and P’urehpecha communities, focused around Cherán in the state of Michoacán. These encounters will be followed by a public conference at MUAC on April 30 entitled “Stories of the Blue Night”, where the Sámi participants will discuss together with P’urehpecha actors some of the challenges of building Indigenous-led cultural institutions, as well as the parallels of resistance with nation-states.
Residency participants: Tomas Colbengtson, Eva Marie Fjellheim, Geir Tore Holm, Elina Waage Mikalsen and Máret Ánne Sara.
Representatives from Sámi-led art institutions: Petra Laiti/Saami Council, Sajje Solbakk/Riddu Riđđu Festival, Anne May Olli/RiddoDuottarMusea and Dine Arnannguaq Fenger Lynge/Dáiddadallu (Sámi Artist Network).
Representatives from P’urehpecha community: Colectivo Cherani (Bethel Cucué, Giovanni Fabián, Francisco Huaroco, Ariel Pañeda Macías, Alain Silva Guardián).
Further iterations of Máhcaheapmi (Responses) will take place in autumn 2024 and throughout 2025, with curated gatherings by Petra Laiti & Alice Jektevik, Elina Waage Mikalsen, Carola Grahn.
The project will culminate with a publication and a symposium organized by OCA, Sámiráđđi and KORO. These outcomes will bring together knowledge from across the gatherings together with a presentation of the five new proposals for art projects in public space.
