Sissel M. Bergh, Carolina Caycedo, Elin Már Øyen Vister: Kunna Guanna Concha

Kunna Guanna Concha brings together works by artists Sissel M. Bergh, Carolina Caycedo, and Elin Már Øyen Vister, in a collaborative project initiated by Øyen Vister. The exhibition focuses on matriarchal lineages and aims to bring forth Indigenous, queer, and eco-feminist perspectives that have largely been excluded from the Western historical canon.

The title of the exhibition, Kunna Guanna Concha, refers to the same word in Norwegian dialect, Southern Sami, and Spanish. By studying specific words and place names we can catch a glimpse of the past and gain insights into other forms of social structures and relations to life and land. The word Guanna, which Sissel M. Bergh has researched for numerous years, reflects the matriarchal societies of ancient times, in which fertility cults played a central part. With the monotheistic Christian religion and increased stately power, binary gender roles gained more importance, accompanied by a shift in people’s relation to land—from usage to ownership. This focus on ownership has on several occasions resulted in intrusion on Indigenous territory and the expulsion of Indigenous people from their land. The artists offer queer readings of ancient and matrilinear societal models that have existed for millennia and still exist around the world, and that have made their marks on many geographical areas in which we live today.

Bergh’s work den tida alt snakka (the time when everything could speak) (2022) refers to a phrase from the storytelling tradition of the coastal areas in Trøndelag. The expression alludes to an animistic understanding of the world, where everything speaks and must be respected. Bergh’s installation consists of a film, a boat sculpture, and language drawings that investigate the linguistic and mythological connections in place names, terms and expressions related to fishing. To make the work, Bergh visited places with links to the myths of the pre-Christian figure Guri Kunna, such as the island of Kunna in Frohavet and “Gurihavna” on Tarva. The oral tradition of Guri Kunna, who was regarded as an ocean goddess or a witch, has persisted and developed into our present time. The work connects places, geology, language, fishing, survival, life force, and myths to ancient matriarchal views of the world.

Caycedo’s works also present alternative ways of relating to land, with plant knowledge as a central theme. The mural titled In Yarrow We Trust (2021-2022) plays on the national motto of the USA, “In God We Trust”. The work draws connections between motherhood, abortion-inducing herbs, and breasts, in order to investigate how we relate to care through cultural customs, the environment, as well as our own bodies, and official and unofficial support systems. In the exhibition, Caycedo’s ceramic sculptures Mammiform, Morena, and Sienna (all 2021-2022) explore the same theme through a new interpretation of ancient Colombian ceramics.

Øyen Vister’s Plantesanger—Sjædtoej laavloeh (Plant Songs) (2022) is a multichannel sound installation consisting of organic material, sound and music, and textile. The work invites the audience into a sensory space surrounded by tree trunks of birch, rowan, aspen, and alder, as well as dried herbs and plants that the artist foraged from various landscapes they visited over the last year. The work is an ode to traditional plant knowledge that has survived both in the Norwegian and Southern Sami societies and bears witness to the artist’s view of plants as spirited beings and teachers.

Queer legacies—other forms of community and kinship—can be uncovered and potentially reclaimed by looking towards the inscriptions of the land, and the way in which places and land areas were named and related to in the past. The artists in the exhibition invite us to listen to and resonate with nature, spirituality, resistance, and joy.

Curators: Stefanie Hessler with Katrine Elise Agpalza Pedersen and Kaja Grefslie Waagen

The exhibition is supported by Arts Council Norway, The Fritt Ord Foundation, the Association of Norwegian Visual Artists (NBK), Trondheim municipality, and Trøndelag county authority/Trööndelagen fylhkentjïelte. 

The exhibition and its official program are Kunsthall Trondheim’s contribution to the 2022 Queer Cultural Year.