We are pleased to announce the second day of the Gathering, the public program of the re-(t)exhile exhibition at Deichman Bjørvika Library. This day continues the conversations with new guests, who will share their perspectives on responsibility and sustainability in the Global North.
The event is free of charge, requires no reservation, and all presentations and conversations will be in English.
The program of this event is generously supported by KORO, Fritt Ord, and Deichman Bjørvika.
_
12:05 Welcome
12:05 Responsible Consumers and the Environmental Impact of Fashion. We all wear clothes every day, so it's good to have some basic knowledge about their environmental impact. The textile industry is the second most polluting industry in the world after the sugar industry. Producing a single pair of jeans consumes approximately 10,000 litres of water, which is equivalent to one person's drinking water for 17 years. Polyester production is also very polluting, as polyester is a plastic and plastic has a high carbon footprint. Responsibility is a broad term that encompasses both ethics and ecology. What options do consumers have for implementing different ways of being responsible in their everyday lives, and how can these be compared so that you can continue to be on the "right side"? The course covers practical tips for moderating consumption, the most important aspects of responsible textile production, and their relative importance.
Talk by Outi Pyy
13:00 Break
13:10 Broken No More: The Art and Joy of Repair. This workshop explores the value of repair in a throwaway culture, highlighting the art, care, and creativity involved in mending objects. It celebrates repair as a form of attention, storytelling, and connection—to both the materials we work with and the environment. Participants are invited to reflect on the meaning of repair, the surprises it brings, and the joy of giving new life to what was once broken.
Workshop by Marium Durrani
14:40 Break
14:50 Congruence of Cloth. Against a framework of socio-political episodes in India’s recent past, Datta enquires into how clothes exist as ‘sites of tension’; used as an instrument to subjugate and conversely as a gesture of providing relief. In Datta’s practice, textiles are the conduit to examine the intersection of gender politics, systemic hierarchies, caste divisions, censorship, and broader socio-political issues. Through their research and making, they continue this inquiry, which underscores how, by revisiting and reinterpreting historical episodes, one is able to challenge dominant narratives of the present.
Talk by Kallol Datta
15:30 Coffee Break
15:50 Displacement grammars. The Atacama Desert has been the site of endless wanderings that are the basis of our current displacements. In the last 20 years, a series of activities has been developed in the Atacama Desert by the Chilean curator Rodolfo Andaur. Furthermore, Andaur has taken part in curatorial teams that focus on critical analysis and reflection about anthropocene, climate change and eco-geopolitics in Latin America. Not only those proposals have been producing knowledge through the visual arts, but they have also contributed to the dissemination of renewed thoughts to research into unknown territories. However, those regions in the north of Chile do not yet have an autonomous regional policy where it is possible to foster artistic reflections. It is under this context that "displacement grammars" proposes, under the methodology of the conversation, a new way of articulating artistic discourses through the desert landscapes. Geographically, the human wanderings throughout those remote places have created a platform that re-thinks the creativity of artists, their works, and their ways of investigating them in the face of the desert. On the other hand, "displacement grammars" has generated new models of associativity between the local and the international context. In this way, it is essential to open the discussion to delve deeper into the problems that are evident in some places in South America.
Talk by Rodolfo Andaur
16:30 Break
16:40 Roundtable. A collective conversation. With guests: Marium Durrani, Andrei Fernández, Ingun Grimstad Klepp, Outi Pyy, Kallol Datta and Rodolfo Andaur. Moderated by Kwame Aidoo
17:30 End
download the full program here
Participants BIOS
Adebola Badmus is a Nigerian creative designer and textile artist whose work spans fabric manipulation, garment construction, and experimental design. Drawing on Nigeria’s vibrant design traditions, Adebola explores how textiles embody history and identity, reimagining cloth as a medium for bespoke fashion, cultural storytelling, and reflection on cycles of consumption, community, and renewal in contemporary society.
Kwame Aidoo is an artist and writer from Ghana, with a background of BSc Biochemistry from KNUST, Kumasi. He is the founder of Nkabom Festival, Portals of Ghana, Buzanga Books and Ngarin Weaving Village. Ngarin reimagines collective handloom weaving in shared spaces, with open source methodologies for returning to circular processes, while exploring sustainability-driven ideologies, storytelling and archival potential of fashion.
Ingun Grimstad Klepp has numerous publications aimed both for the scientific and general public covering cultural, social, technical and practical dimensions of clothes. She is a leading researcher on the use-phase of apparel, how clothes are procured and disposed of, repaired and cared for, and has worked to ensure that life-span and use are included in the environmental debate.
Andrei Fernández is an independent curator and researcher. She explores possibilities for intersections between social economy, contemporary art and popular education, collaborating with artists, activists, and researchers. Since 2017, she has been working closely with weavers from the Wichí people in the Gran Chaco. She is co-founder of Union Textiles Semillas, an organization that brings together nearly 300 women from northwestern Argentina.
Sunny Dolat is a Kenyan curator and creative director whose interdisciplinary practice explores the intersections of art, identity, and cultural memory while interrogating visual culture as both a site of representation and resistance. In 2012, he co-founded The Nest Collective, a Nairobi-based multidisciplinary group working across film, fashion, visual art, and music.
Outi Pyy is the Chief Sustainability Officer at IVALO.COM, Sustainability Influencer, Speaker, and sustainable fashion critic. She is also an expert in sustainable garment care and recycling fashion, whose opinions and insights are highly valued and sought after in the Finnish media. Outi is the first Sustainability Influencer in Finland. Her main channel is Instagram.
Kallol Datta is an artist and researcher based in Kolkata. Their practice reflects upon reconstructing and restructuring donated items of clothing and reclaimed textiles that hold memory and episodic events, to negotiate larger questions about work and production, of labour and use, and of ideas revolving around research as production.
Rodolfo Andaur is a visual art curator, writer and cultural manager based in the Atacama desert. He studied journalism and holds an MA in Art History. He has worked directing, promoting and diffusing transdisciplinary projects. Furthermore Rodolfo Andaur has taken part in curatorial teams that focus on critical analysis and reflection about anthropocene, climate change and eco-geopolitics in Latin America. Not only those proposals produce knowledge through the visual arts, but they have also contributed to the dissemination of renewed thoughts to research into unknown territories. Also Andaur is currently a columnist in several online art magazines and visiting lecturer in a couple of universities and art institutions.
Marium Durrani is an anthropologist and lecturer at Metropolia University of Applied Sciences. Marium earned her Ph.D. from Aalto University in Finland, where she specialized in studying communal repair events and their role in fostering resilience and well-being in societies. She also holds an M.Phil. in Environment and Sustainability from the University of Oslo, Norway. Marium also works as an independent consumer culture consultant.
Bobrikova & de Carmen are a duo whose work explores social transformation and the ties between economic systems and natural environments. Through diverse media, they address themes of utopia, identity, and community, emphasizing collaboration and critical reflection. As founders of initiatives like The Union and Anti-Symposium, they challenge conventional art practices and foster dialogues that reimagine the role of art in society.
María Alejandra Gatti is an interdisciplinary practitioner, curator, writer and editor. She co-directs metaninfas, a critical curatorial and editing platform. Her current work investigates collective processes and practices that focus on open, displaced and constantly moving dynamics. She uses editorial work as a tool for action to circulate artistic projects and practices.