PhD midway evaluation: Down in the Bog - Thinking with Peatlands

Down in the Bog – Thinking with Peatlands is a project led by an ambition to create cross-pollinating meeting grounds for art, natural science, environmental issues and the public. The three chapters project emphasizes the sharing and embodying of knowledge and awareness to create attention towards the need for increased care for peatland areas, locally, nationally and internationally. Practically and conceptually, the topic of peatlands act as a guiding map and compass to learn about historical, cultural and contemporary and geopolitical changes in the natural environments in Sápmi / Northern Norway, Estonia and selected places elsewhere.

Throughout the two group exhibitions "Down in the Bog: Hibernation" (at Tromsø Kunstforening / Romssa Dáiddasiida) and "Down in the Bog – Sporulation" (at EKKM - Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia, Tallinn) followed by "Thinking with Peatlands" symposium (co-curated with Camilla Fagerli) and the space for an extensive meditation program, "Reverberations", artists, natural scientists, environmental activists, NGOs and the public have lent the ecosystem of peatlands as a prism for sharing, learning and collaboration. Together we have dived deep into the bog, listened, smelled, touched and learnt from it.

The presentation will be held in English and last for 45 minutes, with 15 minutes for questions and discussion afterwards.

Bio:

Karolin Tampere is an artist and curator currently a PhD Research fellow at Tromsø Art Academy, UiT and KMD, Faculty of Fine Art, Bergen, Norway. She has a particular interest in collaborative, cross disciplinary, long term socially engaged art practices, sound, music and listening. Karolin´s curatorial practice has dealt with a wide range of topics fueled by her interests, including gentrification and city development, art and public space, rights of nature, socially engaged art practices and ecology and the other-than-human.

Beginning in 2004 she regularly contributes to the “forever lasting” art project Sørfinnset skole/the nord land initiated by artists Geir Tore Holm and Søssa Jørgensen. Together with Åse Løvgren their ongoing collaboration Rakett was initiated in 2003. In 2013 and partly 2014 she was serving as director of Konsthall C in Stockholm and collaboratively transformed the directorship of the institution into a collective named the Work Group/Arbetslaget. In 2017-2022 she served as curator at North Norwegian Art Centre, realizing context specific projects with artists across the whole region of Northern Norway. She also co-curated Lofoten Sound Art Symposium (with Svein Ingvoll Pedersen) and LIAF2019 Lofoten International Art Festival (with Hilde Mehti, Torill Østby Håland and Neal Cahoon).

Since 2011 she is part of ENSAYOS – a collective research practice that has developed distinct inquiries into extinction, human geography, and coastal and peatland health. The mission of Ensayos is to do eco-cultural conservation work in Tierra del Fuego and other archipelagos through collaborative art, science and community projects in partnership with existing decolonial, ecological, and cultural conservation initiatives. In 2022 ENSAYOS presented «The Gift» as part of «TURBA TOL HOL HOL TOL» – The Chilean Pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale.