Paper short abstract:

As an artist filmmaker and festival director from Greenland, I will discuss examples of my work, which operates in the space between anthropology and the contemporary art world, thereby expanding our notion of the ethnographic and the arts.

Paper long abstract:

Born in Greenland in 1975 and with a MA in anthropology from Lund University, I have worked as an award-winning artist, film-maker and festival Director since moving to Berlin in 2000. A primary focus of my work is Greenlandic representation set in an international, contemporary art context.

For Art, Materiality and Representation I aim to take point of departure in my own art projects and show the effect of taking contemporary art into the field of anthropology: Greenland Eyes International Film Festival, which I initiated in 2012 in Berlin, concluded at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in 2015, thereby bringing Greenland's advantgarde into the world's most solid anthropological institution.

As a mirror image to the Smithsonian NMNH scenario, I furthermore propose to discuss the benefits of taking anthropological topics into the contemporary art world. An example being my film OPEN (2012) which features mentally ill Greenlandic inmates in high security prisons in Denmark. This film was exhibited at Louisiana Museum in Denmark, thereby bringing Inuit identity issues into the heart of the contemporary Art world.

I will argue that anthopology and art have to move closer in order to explore their full potential. We are at the beginning of this new era and in my art practise, I continuously try to incorporate knowledge from both fields in the conveyance of deeply human issues, in order to initiate the greatest effects not just within the like-minded, but across humanity in general.