Talk

Open Forum: Margrethe Kolstad Brekke & Kristin Guldbrandsen Frøysa

The Paris Agreement signed in 2016, and the UN's Sustainable Development Goals established in 2015 represent, in principle, a significant paradigm shift regarding the perception of reality in the global community. Since then, we have seen how the "realization of the Sustainability Utopias" involves wicked problems and the need for many parallel paradigm shifts in all sectors and areas of knowledge. We've also noticed the need for a completely new type of holistic thinking, where everything actually and quite literally connects with everything, as well as a necessity for a number of well-established priorities to be turned upside down. In this context, art and culture can play a very special role. We should consider the point of departure that the narratives and visions that can "build structures for significantly reduced consumption" have not yet been properly articulated and visualized, and that arts and culture could have an important societal task in this regard.

The constellation Brekke/Guldbrandsen Frøysa does of course not have a patent on the concept "Action Plan". The project is initiated with the aim to dwell on "big picture thinking", plant new ideas for potential directions within contemporary mindscapes, and perhaps also inspire other articulated "Action Plans" to enter discourse. We know enough to act, says Guldbrandsen Frøysa. And what narratives, and knowledge dissemination that prevail in our time will have significant and dramatic consequences for how politics, society, and courses of action will look in the years to come.

For the presentation at KHIO on March 4, this project is still in the starting phase. Guldbransen Frøysa and Brekke have distilled a number of main points that they wish to highlight and discuss with the students. In the conversation, there also will be brought up the concept of Solarpunk, a movement that works towards imagining and realizing a sustainable future. Brekke will also be sharing another exciting new project, Artistway to Rjukan.

Brekke/Guldbrandsen Frøysa have collaborated on several interdisciplinary projects since 2016, including the exhibition "The Potential Exceeds the Demand" HKS 2019, and the DNB Scholarship Exhibition, Oslo Association of the Arts, 2024.

Margrethe Kolstad Brekke is a textile artist living in Rjukan, Telemark. She works at the intersection of aesthetics and activism, notably as part of the artist collective Rjukan Solarpunk Academy, where a priority over the last years has been to build infrastructure for visual arts through various initiatives and collaborations in the local community. Through her interdisciplinary and process-based practice, Brekke has dwelled on Utopia both as a motive and a method. In contemporary discourse, this involves dealing with open questions: What possible choices lie ahead, and where do the paradoxes related to this arise? How can art contribute to promoting transition processes on a backdrop of complexity and wicked problems?

Kristin Guldbrandsen Frøysa holds a PhD in Applied Mathematics from the University of Bergen (UiB). She was appointed energy director at UiB in 2018, being responsible for the committed research area Climate and Energy Transition. She was the director of Norwegian Centre for Offshore Wind Energy (NORCOWE) from January 2010 to June 2017, and an associate professor at Geophysical institute, UiB in 2016-2018. Guldbrandsen Frøysa has a wide range of experience from science (fish stock assessment, reservoir mechanics and seismic) and from the private sector (marketing and management).

Open Forum is a student run initiative from the Academy of Fine Art in Oslo. Open Forum seeks to create a meaningful exchange of ideas and a dynamic space for dialogue and debate between art students, artists and others. The talks are structured around different topics, from those closer to artistic and curatorial practices to other of social and political relevance.