Forlag: Black Snow Press
Utgivelsesår: 2020
Sideantall: 134
ISBN: 978-82-690650-1-5
Apology, which is the newest addition to Siri Hermansen’s book series, draws on King Harald’s official apology to the Sámi people in his speech at the inauguration of the Sámi Parliament in 1997. By apologizing, King Harald exercised a political act, surpassing his constitutional role as King of Norway – one which is meant to be symbolic and non-political. With this as point of departure, Apology explores the contested landscape of Northern Scandinavia where economic, environmental, and cultural values clash.
Siri Hermansen’s art practice deals with power issues related to national politics and global capitalism. The book aims to reflect on the ongoing conflicts involving Sámi culture and reindeer herding against the mining industry and the capitalist colonization of nation states, and is doing so through presentation of Hermansen’s projects Terra Nullius and Apology contextualised by insightful text contributions.
Before delving into the art projects, historian Steinar Pedersen provides a historical backdrop – from a Sámi perspective – towards which Siri Hermansen’s projects can be seen, thus providing a relevant context and pointing to their relevance today. With an analytical and scrutinizing approach, Mathias Danbolt then delves into the notion of apology and public acts of recognition, asking what kind of purpose an official apology serve, and what kind of political work acts of recognition perform. With a more contemplating approach, Susanne Christensen points out how Hermansen maps some of the lines of conflict that intervene in our culture, specifically how humans are connected to nature, questioning by which right we unrestricted and boundless can exploit nature and its resources.
