Paola Jalili and Katie Lenanton from the curatorial and editorial platform Feminist Culture House (Helsinki, FI) will be hosted by Atelier Kunstnerforbundet in March 2024 to run a series of workshops based on their work on ‘Studio Visit Ethics’ and ‘Needs’. On this occasion, Feminist Culture House has developed a new publication to promote intersectional feminist tools for artistic collaborations. 

Feminist Culture House’s ‘Studio Visit Ethics’ seeks to critically analyse some of the norms, assumptions, and power dynamics that arise during a visit. In the workshops, Katie and Paola will share tools, exercises, and research to aid and encourage the voicing of needs and boundaries when planning artistic collaborations, and more. The workshops are exclusive to current and past resident artists of Atelier Kunstnerforbundet as well as a few selected guests, but will conclude with a public event. 

The public is invited to attend a presentation of Feminist Culture House’s practice and the work developed collaboratively during the workshops. This presentation will be followed by a conversation with Patricia Carolina and Sarah Kazmi from Verdensrommet, who will talk about their work on immigration policies and solidarity amongst art practitioners in the Nordic region, and their efforts in advocating for a more equitable world for all. 

The event will take place at Atelier Kunstnerforbundet Loft on Friday 22 March at 18:00-20:00.

A limited number of workbook publications by Feminist Culture House will be available for free at the event.

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We will do our best to accommodate accessibility and other needs – if you feel comfortable sharing them, or have any questions about this event, you are welcome to get in touch via e-mail with Atelier Kunstnerforbundet project leader Anne Marte Archer (anne.marte [at] kunstnerforbundet.no). Please note that Atelier Kunstnerforbundet Loft is on the 4th floor, and regrettably not accessible for people with limited mobility. A long-term rehabilitation of the building is in process. Please get in touch if you have any questions about accessibility.

Atelier Kunstnerforbundet is able to host Feminist Culture House thanks to generous economic support by Arts and Culture Norway (Kulturrådet / Gjesteoppholdsstøtte). 

Image credits: "Needs Seen" (2024) Digital image by Feminist Culture House / Background image by Linnea Lindgren

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ABOUT ATELIER KUNSTNERFORBUNDET, FEMINIST CULTURE HOUSE, AND VERDENSROMMET

Located in Kunstnerforbundet’s premises in the centre of Oslo and based on a two-year cycle, Atelier Kunstnerforbundet is an infrastructural, collective studio programme that fosters artistic and cultural production by offering free-of-charge studios for artists in combination with a customised programme geared towards the development of their practices. Drawing from models of community-building across a variety of networks and disciplines (such as inclusive feminism, antiracism principles, safer space and collective norms guidelines), the Atelier aims to facilitate access to professional expertise, networks, and resources; foster new modes of participation, support interrelated practices of visual art, and bridge relations to cultures in a plurality of perspectives.

Feminist Culture House wants to see an art field that is more representative of, and accountable to, its constituents, and that functions in ways that are safer, fairer, and more comfortable for all kinds of bodies, identities and agencies. Their work aims to establish and promote a working culture that amplifies underrepresented artistic voices; abolish unpaid and underpaid labour in the art field; and insist upon equal, safer, and healthy working environments in the arts. Feminist Culture House's vision is to be the peak body advocating for intersectional feminist values and working conditions, resulting in an art field working sustainably, and thoroughly occupied and built by different kinds of bodies and identities.

On this occasion, Verdensrommet is represented by Patricia Carolina and Sarah Kazmi. Verdensrommet is an artist-powered mutual support network by and for non-EU/EEA creative professionals based in Norway. The network was initiated in March 2020 to address the precarious conditions of visual artists whose citizenship led them to slip through the state’s support net; and is a grassroots and volunteer-led group of 200+ creative professionals across the country.

The NO NIIN magazine published in February 2024 a conversation between Paola Jalili (Feminist Culture House) and Patricia Carolina (Verdensrommet). The conversation is available for reading online: “A Shared Responsibility: Mutual Support and Allyship Amongst non-eu/eea Art Professionals”. 

In November 2023, Verdensrommet established Aliens Network: a transnational effort to gather tools, exchange knowledge and bring answers to crucial challenges faced by non-EU/EEA creative professionals working in the Nordics. The first assembly of the network was hosted by Itzel Esquivel at OCA (Office for Contemporary Art Norway), and concluded with an open conversation with representatives of the six grassroots organizations in the Nordic region: UKK (Denmark) Organisation for Kunstnere, Kuratorer og Kunstformidlere; IMMART (Denmark) International Migration Meets The Arts; GLOBE ART POINT (Finland); AWI (Italy) Art Workers Italia; UNICORN (Sweden) Artists in Solidarity; AIVAG (Iceland) Artist in Iceland Visa Action Group. 

In April 2022, Verdensrommet hosted the first Immigration Clinic for Creative Professionals at Kulturhuset (Oslo), with politicians and lawyers, case handlers from Immigration Norway (UDI), and representatives of Young Artists’ Society (UKS), the Association of Norwegian Visual Artists (NBK), and Office for Contemporary Art Norway (OCA). The seminar extended over two days to discuss, for the first time in Norway, the gaps between the immigration regulations and the working conditions in the cultural and creative sector and its impact on the livelihood of international artists. A full recording of the seminar is available to watch here.