IRON NOTES: Forged Narratives - Art, Memory, and Material in Contemporary Blacksmithing

IRON NOTES invites audiences to stand at the borders of iron — where memory meets invention, where object meets body, where material meets meaning — and to reconsider what it means to shape, and be shaped by the objects that define our world. 

Iron carries the weight of labor, ritual, architecture, ornament, and resistance. It has shaped tools and weapons, sacred objects and intimate jewellery. At once industrial and poetic, iron moves between monumentality and the human body. It exists at the borders — between utility and symbolism, permanence and transformation, tradition and reinvention. Iron Notes – At the Borders of Iron is an exploration of those thresholds. Through exhibitions, lectures, workshops, guided tours, and performances, the programme proposes a living dialogue between material knowledge and conceptual inquiry.

In a time when objects are in constant revaluation, we ask:

What is an object today?
How do we define and categorize it?
Where does function end and metaphor begin?
What do we need in order to recognize something as an object?

From ornament to tool, from vessel to body-related form, objects structure human life. Yet their meanings are never fixed. Within the Metal and Art Jewellery Subject Area at KHiO, questioning the object — its format, scale, function, symbolism, and philosophical dimensions — forms a core pedagogical and artistic concern.
Iron Notes extends this investigation into a public arena.

Invited Speakers

The symposium gathers professional speakers alongside a discussion forum, offering a broad overview of the development of contemporary blacksmithing in Europe and Scandinavia.

Each invited artist has been selected for their professional trajectory, technical mastery, and distinctive artistic voice. Their work and function represent central thematic strands of the event:

- Memory, History, and Traditions – How inherited techniques and cultural narratives are preserved, challenged, or transformed.
- Inventiveness in Material – How experimentation and technical innovation expand the expressive vocabulary of iron.
- Sources of Inspiration – Personal, political, environmental, and philosophical impulses shaping contemporary practice.

The seminar positions blacksmithing not only as craft, but as critical artistic practice — where forging becomes a method of thinking, and material becomes narrative.

18:00 – 20:00: Welcome gathering, Akers Mek - Oslo National Academy of the Arts

08:30 - 09:00 Registration – Coffee
09:00 - 09.45 Welcome and Introduction: Prof. Jorge Manilla – Markus Degerman – Hanna Gjelten Hattrem
09:45 - 10.30 From One Small Bird to a Swarm - Artistic Practice Across Scales and Spaces. Toril Bonsanken, Artist
10:30 - 11.15 Balancing Gravity (Everything is in there). Kristine Sandøy, Artist
11:15 - 11.35 Coffee Break
11:35 - 12:20 From anvil to adornment; the poetry of iron. Carin EM Reinders, Director CODA Museum, Apeldoorn
12:20 - 13.00 Student presentations
13.00 - 14.00 Lunch break
14.00 - 17.30 Workshops:
    1. Sketching with wire - Antti Nieminen (Blacksmithing Workshop KHiO).
    2. Sculpting in Sand, Casting in Light - Johannes Vemren Rygh (Metal workshop).
    3. Pressing Ideas – between the positive and negative (Metal workshop)
18.00 - 20.00 Opening Exhibitions in – Gallery Seilduken, Katedralen, Reception Gallery. Welcome words by Prof. Jorge Manilla at Gallery Seilduken at 18.00. Music Performance by Niord Alexander Hauge Sund.
21:00 – 23:00 Social Gathering – Akers Mek. All participants are welcome.

08:30 - 09:00  Coffee
09:00 - 09.45   Context is half of the work. Camilla Low, Artist
09:45 - 10.30   Mittens and other stories. Eija Mustonen, Artist & Development Specialist, LAB University of Applied Sciences
10:30 - 11:15   The ferrous beast and the toolnes of things. Tobias Birgersson, Artist – Professor
11:15 - 11.35   Coffee Break
11:35 - 12:20   Raw Blocks of Black Iron. Nils Hint, Artist – Professor
12:20 - 13:00   Forged by Women. Ada Nilsen, Mia Veen, Madelen Isa Lindgren, Artists
13:00 - 14:00  Lunch Break
14.00 - 17.30  Workshops:
    1. Sketching with wire - Antti Nieminen (Blackmithing Workshop KHIO)
    2. Sculpting in Sand, Casting in Light - Johannes Vemren Rygh (Metal workshop)
    3. Pressing Ideas – between the positive and negative (Metal workshop)
18:00               Closing Performance in Katedralen Khio
21:00 - 23:00  Social Gathering – Akers Mek All participants are welcome