Dáiddakártta. Cartography in Contemporary Art Practices

This article explores contemporary art practices in Sápmi which utilise maps as a tool and medium. The importance of the artist Hans Ragnar Mathisen’s abundant maps from the mid-1970s is acknowledged, and furthermore the article looks into examples from the next generation Sámi artists who create dá...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:JoLMA
Main Author: Haugdal, Elin Kristine
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Edizioni Ca’ Foscari - Venice University Press, Fondazione Università Ca’ Foscari 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10037/34289
https://doi.org/10.30687/Jolma/2723-9640/2024/01/006
Description
Summary:This article explores contemporary art practices in Sápmi which utilise maps as a tool and medium. The importance of the artist Hans Ragnar Mathisen’s abundant maps from the mid-1970s is acknowledged, and furthermore the article looks into examples from the next generation Sámi artists who create dáiddakárta, which literally translates to art maps. Although not a traditional Sámi way of mapping and orientating in the landscape, dáiddakárta is significant in representing Indigenous people, in knowledge production, decolonial resistance, and reconciliation. Various dáiddakárta broaden the concept of what a ‘map’ has been, and could be, and contribute to the cartographic representations of other forms of being. Emphasising the concept of worlding helps understand mapping as a constant formation, relation and negotiation, and as a forceful and sometimes activist process, not only rendering or representing a world ‘already there’. Instead, the art maps serve as interpretative, aesthetic and even speculative actors in contemporary society.