Naisia Maailman Laidalla (Women living on the Edges of the World):Conversations with the edge

• Main Authors: Miettinen, Satu Anneli, Sarantou, Melanie Augusta Chilion, Akimenko, Daria, Escudeiro, Nuno
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: /dk/atira/pure/person/fieldofscience2010/6/13/2; Visual arts and design; Kola Peninsula; Murmansk; Rovaniemi; kola peninsula; Lapland
• Online Access: https://research.ulapland.fi/fi/publications/946403c2-e829-47b2-8c0a-d20fe310a509; https://margintomargin.com/; https://margintomargin.com/2017/12/12/conversations-with-the-edge/

The exhibition Naisia maailman laidalla / Margin to Margin is an outcome of the homonymous art and research project that took place in 2016-2017 between the three geographical margins: outback South Australia, Finnish Lapland and Russian Kola Peninsula. The project was carried out with the financial support of Kone Foundation - Koneen säätiö. It is an art and research collaboration between artist communities with the goal to explore the relationship between art-making and empowerment of female makers living and working ‘on the edges’. The project and the exhibition focuses on rendering audible the voices of the artists through documentation and multimedia artwork. The research views the concept of marginality from the position of geographical isolation and migration. This unique cross-continental collaboration explores and presents art and research processes of women working in different situations across different continents while facing challenges of is Isolation and remoteness, and despite those challenges. Central to this study are women artists who may transition from one role to another (be it spouse, mother, researcher, professional, teacher, artist, maker and friend), continuously fluctuating between identities to enable their be coming both as individuals and within communities. One example of a collaborative project that presented multi-layered artefact making and narrative outcomes was the project Conversations with the Edge. Initiated by the Fibrespace Inc textile art group of South Australia, this project set out to attract a reactive response by sending personal artefacts or notes to artists in Lapland and elsewhere. Thegroup created a selection of artefacts which were then presented to the participants in Rovaniemi and Murmansk. The response to the Fibrespace artists was somewhat unexpected as they not only received artefacts, but also a video message from community to community was initiated in Rovaniemi in which spoken messages were captured and sent to the respective communities. The narratives ...