We’re happy to announce the launch of the new issue of Kunstlicht at Framer Framed on October 16th at 19:30. The issue is titled The Worldliness of Oil: Recognition and Relations, and delves into how oil continues to shape individual experiences and national identities, propelling conflict and creating disparate economic opportunities.

Date: Saturday October 16th
Time: 19.30h
Register here for free

In this double issue of Kunstlicht, the reader is invited to investigate the (parallel or displaced in time) relations between, and experiences of, oil nations, or petrostates, if you will. These are countries that are marinating in resources, but also deeply entrenched and engaged in resource conflicts and wars. Those who live on and support themselves off the lands and oceans are directly impacted by this industry, and consequently its economy and politics. The contributors to this issue delve into these complex cultural fields from a wide range of perspectives relating to the past, present and future.

During this launch Kunstlicht will present a reading from Clementine Edwards, and speak with artist Tanja Engelberts and writer Niloufar Nematollahi, all introduced by the guest editors and curators Anne Szefer Karlsen and Helga Nyman. Please join us for an evening in the name of the experiences of oil hosted by Kunstlicht’s editors-in-chief, Joyce Poot and Anna Sejbæk Torp-Pedersen.

About:

Clementine Edwards is a Rotterdam- and Naarm/Melbourne-based artist who works across sculpture, film, performance, writing and jewellery. Her ongoing research line is material kinship, which she locates in the context of climate colonialism. Soon Clementine publishes The Material Kinship Reader, co-edited by Kris Dittel. clementineedwards.com.

Tanja Engelberts is currently a resident at the Rijksakademie voor beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam. She graduated from a master fine art at Chelsea College of Art & Design after studying sculpture and monumental arts in both the Netherlands and Japan. Her works are included in the collections (a.o.) of Clifford Chance (UK), Nationale Nederlanden (NL) and the Ucross Foundation (USA).

Helga Nyman is an art historian and curator at Stavanger Art Museum, Norway.

Niloufar Nematollahi is a Rotterdam-based artist and researcher currently studying Middle Eastern studies and international relations. Intrigued by the intersections between culture and politics, Nematollahi studies artifacts such as stories and propaganda in order to construct a truthful representation of people’s entanglements with political dynamics of all sorts. Currently, Nematollahi’s research focuses on the links between the Iranian oil industry, labor movements, and resistance literature in the south of Iran.

Anne Szefer Karlsen is a curator, writer, editor and Professor of Curatorial Practice, currently programme director for MA Curatorial Practice at the Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design, University of Bergen, Norway.

Ruby de Vos is a PhD candidate at the University of Groningen, where she is finishing her PhD “Living with Toxicity: Toxic Temporalities in Contemporary Art and Literature”. She writes about art for various platforms, and has curated, among others, Mngrv by Susanne Kriemann at Galerie Block C in 2020, and After Hiroshima: Cultural Responses to the Atomic Bomb, a cultural week about nuclear weapons at various locations in Groningen in 2019.