Abundance at Galleri F15 2023

Abundance, Galleri F15 & Momentum. Moss, Norway.

4 Feb–28 May, 2023

Curatorial Text, Ki Nurmenniemi

Attuning to the Abundant Earth

The title of the 45th edition of Tendencies, Abundance, stands for a mindset and an aesthetic that cherish the diversity and complexity of earthly lifeforms, relationships, and stories. The curatorial motivation behind this exhibition is to celebrate all that continues to co-evolve in the web of life on this planet, despite the accelerating climate breakdown and collapsing ecosystems. 

Abundance attunes to and embraces the teeming terrestrial life that still thrives here, against the odds. This exhibition brings together a constellation of artworks that encourage us to notice subtle connections, invisible forces, cosmic patterns as well as listening to silenced or marginalized voices. The exhibited artworks tend to personal and collective wounds, while at the same time connecting human and more-than-human stories. 

Importantly, Abundance is not a theme or a clear-cut curatorial concept, but a mentality and a method. In a world ruled by politically produced scarcity, finding abundance can spark both minor and major socio-ecological transformations. From a scientific point of view, advocating for abundance makes sense: the more diverse the biosphere, the more resilient its life-supporting ecosystems. Developing a profound understanding of and respect for the principles of interconnectedness is key to crafting more sustainable futures. Nonetheless, the aim of this exhibition is not to educate but to very gently pull together some very delicate material-discursive threads. Abundance is a web of stories and relations, a multi-dimensional trip through the cosmos and consciousness. 

As the curator of this exhibition, I wanted Abundance to work like a spell. The venue, Galleri F15, a dreamy mansion on a hilltop on Jeløya island, with a view over the Oslo fjord, has such a powerful presence that the dramaturgy of the exhibition had to be carefully shaped in order to fit into the setting. The intricately ornamented rooms, the constant interplay of natural light and shadow, as well as the glimmering presence of water, informed and guided the curation. I wanted the visitors to be able to view the works from various angles and experience them through various senses. As the exhibition highlights contemporary crafts, embracing embodied ways of knowing became key to the curatorial concept. If one really begins to notice all the enchanting stuff of life happening within us and all around us, ranging in scale from the microscopic to the planetary, one might just be compelled to take better care of it. 

Abundance, not excess

While the English title of the exhibition evokes positive associations, the Norwegian translation ‘overflod’ (Eng. overflow) conveys negative ideas of glut or excess. Excess, in the context of the ongoing socio-ecological crises, is harmful and undesirable. The excessive consumption of energy and natural resources, and the resulting waste and pollution, are causing the current turmoil. For this reason, environmental movements campaign for us to reduce, reuse and recycle. While reducing overconsumption is urgently called for, cutting back – the so-called scarcity mentality that dominates the discourse and underlies policies – is just not enough. 

In tandem with the urgent need to halt climate collapse and environmental destruction, it is equally important to dream about more just, pleasurable, and sustainable ways of cohabiting this planet. This exhibition, intended to grow into a series, began not with a pile of theoretical books, but with in-depth conversations with fellow cultural workers, artists, duojárs, activists, and researchers. In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic and in its aftermath, followed by Russia waging its war against Ukraine, our hearts filled with sorrow and growing despair, and we kept asking each other what kind of world would be not only inhabitable, but also the sort of place where we could live and thrive. 

While dreaming might seem a luxury, individual and collective dreaming are essential for imagining more just, sustainable, livable futures. Firstly, merely imparting information is not enough to motivate people to change their desires and habits. Captivating stories tend to inspire more motivation. Secondly, technical solutions can tackle specific problems, but they do not necessarily aid in addressing complex, intertwined challenges or the more existential core issue: How to build better relationships on and with Earth? All living beings are supported by invisible threads woven into intricate webs of life. Consequently, building better relationships is key to crafting better worlds. Building those relationships is indeed a matter of crafting: rehearsing, trying out, experimenting, failing, trying again. Sometimes it feels as though things shift overnight, but most of the time, world-building and reconstruction are slow practices. 

Contemporary crafts and art converge 

The first edition of Abundance featured works by 14 artists living across the Nordic countries and Sápmi. They shared a commitment to materially-driven creative processes that often develop slowly over time, while their practices ranged from duodji to digital forms of world-building. I started to curate this show by taking the following question as my point of departure: How do contemporary crafts and art practices converge to create more livable, lovable, and sustainable worlds?

Working in close dialogue with particular materialities, gathering and treating materials with sensitivity and care, building a relationship with them over long periods of time and allowing them to be one’s guide are some of the central aspects of the practices featured in this exhibition. Letting go of ideals of human control and mastery over materials is another important characteristic of many of the featured practices. Experimentation, playfulness, and active re-interpretation of traditions is more appealing to the participating artists than adhering to strict rules or conventions. Their material choices are not limited to so-called natural materials: many choose to work with synthetic and industrial materials that are ubiquitous and problematic from an environmental perspective. Some of the artists have chosen digital interfaces to convey their craft or have created their artworks either fully digitally or through digitally-assisted processes.

Many of the artists participating in the Abundance exhibition combine the aforementioned approach to materials with conceptual approaches that, among other things, highlight nature-human connectedness, the agencies and rights of more-than-human beings, or the need to re-evaluate historical narratives from both personal, collective and systemic points of view. 

Since the inception of the Tendencies biennial, its assumed cultural and geographical focus has been limited to ‘Nordic’. Stereotypically, Nordic societies have been associated with technology-driven social progress, relatively flat social hierarchies, and wealth that is distributed relatively democratically. Aesthetically, ‘Nordicness’ is often associated with pale and sleek minimalism, especially within the design, architecture, art, and fashion sectors. The actual relevance of these stereotypical notions is being actively questioned. 

By highlighting differences and complexities, the abundance mentality can pose a challenge to some deeply ingrained assumptions about ‘Nordicness’, be it streamlined aesthetics or ideas relating to an assumed Nordic exceptionalism. Because the current socio-ecological crises are rooted in the histories and the present-day effects of colonization and oppression – just consider the Sámi people and their continued struggles with Nordic colonization – unravelling and rewriting unjust histories should be a crucial part of all future-building processes. 

When engaging with the world with an abundance mindset, life appears beautiful because of endless diversity, variations, nuances, differences. The diversity here refers not only to biodiversity or ideas of social inclusion but also to the importance of resisting one-sided narratives and oversimplified, false solutions to complex problems. Abundance is a call to listen to a rich variety of voices and stories, whether human or more-than-human. 

This variety of viewpoints and interrelationships is also visible in how most of the participating artists navigate various traditions and themes within the fields of art and contemporary crafts. Many of them have received education in both fields, or they exhibit in both circles and at their intersections. Additionally, a few of them are trained in music or dance. And as with Sámi practices of duodji and luohti, embodied in this exhibition through movement and yoik, some practices resist disciplinary boundaries and are as multifaceted as cosmology.

Abundance Exhibition Catalogue

Edited by Marthe Yung Mee Hansen and Ki Nurmenniemi. Published by Galleri F15 & Momentum. Moss, Norway. 2023.

Thumbnail photo by Katja Hagelstam. Sasha Huber, Mami Wata, metal staples on wood, 2022.