The conversation takes place in the exhibition Corpus Infinitum on the 9th floor.
In relation to the exhibition Corpus Infinitum, MUNCH invites audience, members, and curious minds to engage in a program of exploration through the ‘Major Arcana’-series, curated by Sámi scholar, Liisa-Rávná Finbog.
Seeking clarity and truth, and hoping to understand cause and effect, the event ‘The Major Arcana: Justice’ invites Canadian scholar of climate studies and art, Emma Arnold to converse with Sámi scholar and curator, Liisa-Rávná Finbog about resistance in the face of climate collapse and relational accountability.
Based on tarot as an alternative source of knowledge, the Major Arcana-series is based on the 22 trumph cards of a tarot deck; these cards follows a narrative journey through innocent exploration, critical engagement, until finally, there is enlightenment. In a similar way, the series will bring its participants on a journey, starting with two literary conversations, until it concludes in a larger symposium.
The first event is ‘The Major Arcana: Justice – Climate Fiction and Narrative Imaginations’. In the Major Arcana ‘justice’ is a card of reckoning, but more than a pure focus on simple right and wrong, the card instead implies clarity and truth, both of which are achieved through understanding cause and effect.
The topic of the event bases itself on the card, opening the discussion into the specifics of climate collapse and climate crisis through highlighting equitability; exploring how capitalism, colonization, and subjugation have helped shape the structure of today’s societies (from the West, but in the entire world) and the consequence of said structures on environment and climate.
Emma Arnold (PhD) is an interdisciplinary artist, scholar, and writer originally from Montréal, Canada. Her work is situated strongly within the arts field though she is also a trained social scientist in urban, geographic, and environmental studies. She uses aesthetic and artistic methods and practices to explore urban and social change. Her work is ultimately concerned with how to build more creative, democratic, inclusive, and sustainable cities and communities. In her work, she also engages with environmental issues, especially the climate crisis.
Liisa-Rávná Finbog (PhD) is a Sámi Indigenous scholar, duojár, author, and curator affiliated with Tampere University, Finland. She is the author of 'It Speaks to You: Making Kin of People, Stories, and Duodji in Sámi Museums (Dio Press, 2023). She holds a position as an external curator at KORO, the Norwegian government's professional body for art in public spaces as well as the position of curator of discursive programming at MUNCH museum in Oslo. Moving between Sámi aesthetics and the materiality of creative practices, she navigates the dynamics between fine art and politics of indigeneity in her work, both as an academic and duojár, but also in her curatorial practice.
About Corpus Infinitum
Are there equitable options to the hegemonic epistemology of the West, which historically has been founded on the ideology of capitalism, extractivism, and subjugation? In their exhibition, Corpus Infinitum, the two artists, Denise Ferreira da Silva and Arjuna Neuman puts forth said question, challenging existing conventions by exploring topics such as climate collapse, war, imperialism, and colonization through the senses, employing both poetry, philosophy, quantum physics, and tarot to reimagine what is and what could be.
During the spring there will also be a book club related to the exhibition. Send an email for more information on how to join.
Photo: Ove Kvavik
