The Butterfly Effect

First speaker: Laura Raicovich, author of Culture Strike. Museums in the Age of Social Protest (Verso Books, 2022) 
October 28, 2023 at 3pm, NNKM Tromsø/Romssa

The Butterfly Effect is a new and evolving public programme, lasting 18 months, which is conceived and presented by Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum (NNKM) in northern Norway / Sápmi.  

The series asks a simple question: Can small shifts in museum practice generate seismic change across our societies? That museums of today face profound challenges is without question; they are a symptom of the urgent and interconnected impact on our societies of the climate emergency, racial and sexual exploitation, wealth inequality, and technological innovation outpacing human comprehension. Yet museums have a role to play in activating solutions to these challenges.

As systems in and of themselves, museums reflect and reinforce the societal structures in which they exist. Since their onset in the 18th century, modern museums have been central to the modernist/colonial project; but a more expansive history of museums and cultural institutions can also reveal a host of anti-modernist/anti-colonial critique. We can look beyond the dominant Western art historical canon and find examples of alternative radical museologies and institutional practices that can empower us to activate change. 

In NNKM we recognize that museums are sites of ideology and thus repositories of vested interests; we acknowledge their foundations upon extractive and racialised mechanisms. And yet, we believe those armatures can be countered by positioning ourselves as parts of mutable structures in constant flux, that foster polyphonic voices and challenge received histories. We endeavour to work through situated practices, that understand their local-beingness as an indisputable part of the many interconnected worldviews that exist. Furthermore, we advocate for museums of intervention and criticality, museums that inform state policy rather than be harnessed by it.  

Consisting of conversations and keynote lectures, performances and workshops, as well as food-sharing and storytelling, the series upholds the collective nature of this communal endeavour. As a museum undergoing a process of regional decentralisation, some of our talks will take place in NNKM Tromsø/Romssa, some in NNKM Bodø/Bådåddjo/Buvdda, some in the Svalbard Archipelago and some in co-creation with partners in Finnmark/Finnmárkku.

The Butterfly Effect convenes curators, artists, museum professionals, lawyers and activists to consider radical museum and institutional models from the past, present and a speculative future. With this we hope to strengthen and celebrate a general understanding of the museum’s responsibility and potential in society. We also hope to nourish and accelerate our own internal commitment to, and implementation of, the repurposing of our resources to generate processes of transformation that are urgent and crucial to our planetary longevity.   

First speaker: Laura Raicovich  

Future speakers: Ama Josephine Budge, Léuli Eshrāghi, Anawana Haloba, Stefanie Hessler, Candice Hopkins, Melanie Keen, Kimberley Moulton, Manuela Moscoso, Ánde Somby, and more to be announced soon.  

Follow @nordnorskkunstmuseum on Instagram for updated information and digital links.