people: Maria Luna Nobile

EURAU 26 / LATITUDES lecture series 

Warm welcome to the talk by the Icelandic artist RÚRÍ 

This is the first of a series of lecture organized by Umeå School of Architecture in the framework of EURAU 26. Rúrí is invited as a keynote speaker for the kick-off planning meeting for the EURAU26 International Symposium on European research in architecture and urbanism, the final symposium will be hosted by Umeå School of Architecture in June 2026 under the title LATITUDES: situated reflections on architectural research.   

People may have different motivations to express themselves artistically; and for Rúrí art is the language. It allows her to express herself in ways that would not have been viable through the written or spoken word. She touches on issues that matter to all of us; she raises questions concerning life and coexistence, of cosmic coherence; she challenges the relativity of objects and phenomena and queries the coordinate system that man has established to structure his surroundings. A list of all the forms of her artistic expression—such as performance, happening, drawing, sculpture, photography, video and so on—could lead us to expect a very heterogeneous oeuvre. But a closer look reveals an impressive consistency and almost unerringly logical development in her work, revolving around vital philosophical issues, terms she uses herself to describe her motivation: identity, time, cosmos, relativity, and environment. (Christian Schoen, “Preface”, in: Rúrí monograph, Hatje Cantz, Ostfieldern 2011, pp.6.) 

For more info: maria luna nobile  

Artist Elena Mazzi will give a talk on Complex Geographies sharing her doctoral research exploring the territorial and cultural landscapes known as the Polar Silk Road. Asking – how can posthuman visualities bring to light the deep environmental, social, political, and economic changes that are currently affecting the Arctic regions? As the Arctic seas become increasingly navigable due to global warming and the consequent melting of the ice sheet, access to new resources is drastically enhanced, as promoters now get to lay their hands on no less than 20% of the world’s oil, gas, uranium, gold, platinum and zinc reserves. The aim of this research is to develop research-based speculative encounters between geopolitics and visual culture in relation to the Polar Silk Road commercial project, by considering how exploring through art the current political conflict might slow down or drastically transform this plan.

Arctic Regions are complex to define from a geological perspective and subject to rapid changes. Here, intricate relationships between natural resources and humans are interwoven. That is why art practices are fundamental in analyzing the entanglement between economy, geopolitics, ecology, and mobility, using an inclusive approach to different perspectives that go beyond dominant cultural groups and challenge colonial legacies.

Mazzi, through her own work, aims to investigate new tools to visualize the complex relationship between geopolitics and geography, taking into consideration that Arctic regions have devoted particular attention and care to environmental issues and sustainability in the last decades. With this project, she wishes to bridge the gap between the academic world and artistic communities, by opening transdisciplinary spaces for encounters. 

The researcher and artist will be in dialogue with Maria Luna Nobile. This talk will be the occasion for a dialogue organised in the framework of the work of the Research Group Designing the Contemporary City at Umeå School of Architecture and Elena Mazzi residency at UmArts studio. 

Elena Mazzi (1984) is a visual artist, working with specific geographical and socio-political contexts. Her poetics deals with the relationship between human being and the environment in which he/she lives and with which he/she must reckon on a daily basis. This analysis, which often follows an anthropological approach, investigates and documents an identity which is at the same time personal and collective, and gives rise to forms of exchange and transformation. She studied History of Art (Siena), Visual Arts (IUAV, Venice) and Fine Arts (Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm). She is currently a PhD candidate at Villa Arson and Université Côte d’Azur, Nice. Her works have been displayed in many solo and collective exhibitions all over the world. She attended several residency programs, and she is the winner of various art prizes. In 2015 she started to lead workshops for young artists, teachers and general public in collaboration with Institutions, Schools, Academies.

Maria Luna Nobile is an Associate Professor at Umeå University in Architectural and Urban Design at Umeå University School of Architecture, she is architect and PhD in the same field. Her research focuses on the project of the contemporary city, deepening the theme of the reuse and reactivation of existing buildings and abandoned areas in Italy, Europe and more recently in Sweden. 

For more details contact:

UmArts research coordinator Clara West at clara.west@umu.se

UMA Associate Professor Maria Luna Nobile at maria.nobile@umu.se   

The event is part of Elena Mazzi’s research project ‘Complex Geographies’ granted by the Italian Council program (2023), promoted by the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Culture.

On Saturday 3 December everyone is welcome to take part in the opening of the winter garden with a public event starting with a roundtable discussion indoors in the Architecture School (UMA). Followed by the installation of the winter public space which will reactivate the high level courtyard between Bildmuseet and Konsthögskolan. If the experimental structure works, and the weather permits, we will try and keep it up for extra days to allow for extended public engagement.

The event will gather architectural and artistic practices which experiment with the re-activation of public spaces in Umeå, Rome and Constantinople. The creative process is at the core of this collective exploration producing interdisciplinary connections and allowing unexpected meetings and new perspectives on crucial global challenges.

This will be the first installation of the Small Visionary Project ‘Retake/Reuse: experiments to reactivate public space: the winter garden’. It will explore how architecture can operate as a device for collective practice and public engagement; to investigate how urban winter gardens can have a regenerative social impact in Nordic, urban contexts, and how temporary structures can help us formulate new responsive, ecological environments.

Saturday 3 December Program

The morning discussion will take place in an hybrid format, from the theatre space at Umeå School of Architecture (UMA) and zoom.

In the afternoon you can participate in the winter garden installation in the square between Bildmuseet, UID and the Art School. 

Please feel free to join for the day or just pass by for one of the moments, you are more than welcome to join with your families and friends!

Programme

10.00 Introduction to the Small Visionary Project (Maria Luna Nobile, Marie Kraft, Alejandro Haiek) and the collaboration with Circolo Scandinavo on the intersection between art and architecture. 

10.10 Round table #1 Artist in residence  (UMA Theatre): Introduction to the project Reuse/Retake (Rome/Umeå/Iceland)

10.15 – 10.20 (Stalker) la circostanza

10.20 – 10.35 (Helena Wikström)  Artists residency in Rome

10.35 – 10.50 (Funduk – Basak Tuna + Matteo Locci) Artists residency in Umeå

11.00 Round table #2 Architecture as a device (UMA Theatre): Reactivating public space in the urban context, the architectural object as a device, collaboration and intersection between disciplines.

11.05 – 11.15 (Bruit du frigo – Hocine Aliouane-Shaw) La fabric du Lac

11.15 – 11.25 (Carla Collevecchio) UMA Pavillion 

11.25 – 11.35 (Alejandro Haiek) The Winter Garden

13.00 – 17.00 Opening of the Winter Garden Public Space on the Art Campus: in the square between Bildmuseet and the Art School with Alejandreo Haiek + Team, Fatemeh Moradi + team, The Human Interaction

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Collaboration Partners

The Winter Garden project is an intersection between culture, art, architecture, human interactions and environmental science, addressing climate emergency and the need for nature, in a transdisciplinary collaboration between:

Umeå School of Architecture

SVP Project Coordinator: Maria Luna Nobile

Project Installation: Alejandro Haiek

Technical advisors: Tomas Mena, Alejandra Diaz

Project team: Rebecca Rudolph, Raffaele Errichiello

Circolo Scandinavo

Director: Marie Kraft

Department of Informatics

UX Lab: Fatemeh Moradi, Umeå University.

Project team: Hiran Herath, Kevin Charles Dalli, Parisima Alaie , Viktor Sjöström, William Sahlin.

Department of Environmental Sciences
Project advisor: Gesche Blume-Werry

The Retake/ Reuse experiments to reactivate public spaces: the winter garden project explores how participatory processes can be a tool to develop architectural languages and renegotiate a city’s infrastructure in response to the climate emergency and the need for winter public spaces. Working through artistic practices and research explorations, this project investigates how urban winter gardens can have a regenerative social impact in Nordic urban contexts and how temporary structures can help us formulate new architectural languages. Working with members of the public, students and experts in art and architecture, the project facilitates knowledge sharing leading to the realisation of a physical full-scale prototype at the Arts Campus, Umeå University, on Saturday 3 December, 2022. 

Everyone is welcome to take part in this public event starting with a roundtable discussion indoors in the Architecture School (UMA) 10.00-12.00. Followed by an installation of the winter public space which will reactivate the high level courtyard between Bildmuseet and Konsthögskolan 13.00-17.00

This will be the first installation of the Small Visionary Project ‘Retake/Reuse: experiments to reactivate public space: the winter garden’ supported by UmArts. It will explore how architecture can operate as a device for collective practice and public engagement; to investigate how urban winter gardens can have a regenerative social impact in Nordic, urban contexts, and how temporary structures can help us formulate new responsive, ecological environments.

The Winter Garden project is an intersection between culture, art, architecture, human interactions and environmental science, addressing climate emergency and the need for nature, in a transdisciplinary collaboration between:

Umeå School of Architecture

SVP Project Coordinator: Maria Luna Nobile

Project Installation: Alejandro Haiek

Technical advisors: Tomas Mena, Alejandra Diaz

Project team: Rebecca Rudolph, Raffaele Errichiello

Circolo Scandinavo

Director: Marie Kraft

Department of Informatics

UX Lab: Fatemeh Moradi, Umeå University. Team: Hiran Herath, Kevin Charles Dalli, Parisima Alaie , Viktor Sjöström, William Sahlin

Department of Environmental Sciences
Project advisor: Gesche Blume-Werry

The Embroidery Group will regroup in 2024 with a focus on redesign, visible mending and re-use in textiles and architecture. The group brings together researchers interested in the relationship between stitching and sustainability. The embroidery group was initiated by Lena Liljemark and Emma Ewadotter in 2021, and will restart in 2024 with a new series of workshops and meetings.