As part of Ubmejen biejvieh Trine Hansen, architect and musician, and Susanne Ewerlöf, curator and PhD student (HDK Valand/Göteborgs universitet), have been invited to undertake an artists research residency at UmArts alongside the Art and Truth-Telling exhibition at Bildmuseet (2025-10-17 to 2026-04-05) which commemorates the Swedish Truth Telling Process.
Trine Hansen belongs to the Sea Sami community from the Norwegian side of Sápmi where practices and knowledge have formed in relation to the specific characteristics of the place and the material and conditions that form the land. Her work is concerned with Sami building traditions and its possible application today to create spaces for conversations and gatherings. For this residency she has researched the spatial organization of the Sami goahti / gåhtie and its spiritual and holistic dimensions. Throughout the vast land that is Sápmi / Sábmie different building techniques have developed depending on the materials to hand in the various landscapes and different nomadic patterns and needs, but certain principles remain similar across Sápmi.
Susanne Ewerlöf relies on Indigenous knowledge when contemplating how to approach the curatorial in a decolonizing way questioning both the spatial and temporal logics that often frame exhibitions or spaces made to share artistic work.
Spending time around Árviesjávrrie / Arvidsjaur, they have used different Indigenous research methodologies and artistic strategies to approach questions about how to connect with the land and build relationships.
While searching for understanding about how history, heritage and place interact they have contemplated how to communicate through a built environment / installation during their ten day long residency at UmArts. They used various material elements that communicate a sense of place, narrative and practice. The idea is to create a multi-functional space that is a meeting point and experience of their ideas, an exhibition of sorts that enables conversation rather than presents established knowledge.
The structure will develop over time and is an exhibition without a clear start or finish. What you encounter here in the UmArts Studio is a moment in a perpetual process in which you are invited to engage. By suggesting that an exhibition can be a site that fosters collective learning and relationship building rather than a presentation of established knowledge Hansen and Ewerlöf question norms that are intertwined with Western logics of display and linear notions of time.
The carved wooden steps are made during a workshop in Árviesjávrrie together with Lennart Persson and in collaboration with Arvidsjaur Sami Association. The steps reference an element of traditional Forest Sami Architecture, namely a free standing staircase that connects the ground with the traditional storage house (Ájtte/Ájttie). These steps can be found in the Sami Church town of Árviesjávrrie which is an important living cultural heritage. Materials for the stairs were gathered from the land where Ewerlöfs grandfather was born and where her relatives currently live, which is her Sami ancestors’ traditional land. During a public conversation at UmArts in February yoiker and reindeer herder Jörgen Stenberg raised the issue of taking material from nature before making use of it and asking the land for permission as an act to build relationship and become open to what it does to you as an artist / maker / researcher.
The twigs on the ground are borrowed from Lars Stenberg’s gåthie, a traditional Forest Sami building where families would live. Birch twigs are collected at a certain time in the spring and placed on the ground to insulate the floor. Typically reindeer skin and rugs would be placed on top of the twigs so people can sit or lie down comfortably.
The orientation of the space is structured along a North–South axis, and movement within it follows spiritual principles. The placement of the ukssa (door), árran (fireplace), and båassjo (cooking place) reflects their positions in a traditional gåhtie. These elements are not merely functional features but sacred centres within the dwelling. To respect this order, one must never step across the árran or the båassjo.
In the space you can find various other elements that connect to the Forest Sami area of Árviesjávrrie/ Suorssá/Máláge (Arvidsjaur/Sorsele/Malå). Several items are borrowed or gifted from friends (such as the hanging carpets and the chaga mushroom). Books that have informed the process are placed on the steps for anyone who wants to engage further. You can also find a photo book on the ground that traces the research journey over the last year through a selection of images. Ewerlöf’s video essay ‘Hi Karin’ is screening in the space. The short film tells about the Forest Sami woman Karin Stenberg, and is presented alongside an edition of the Swedish Tourist Associations year book from 1901 where the Lappologist researcher Karl Bernard Wiklund reported on his visit to the area. Following her first visit to the sites, Ewerlöf felt an urge to counter Wiklund’s rather derogatory narrative by integrating a semi autobiographical fable about a time-travelling squirrel encountering the same places. Ewerlöf’s words spill out from the bookpages onto the floor to reference a flow of water. A couple of glass bottles in the middle of the room contain the distilled aroma of Lars Stenbergs gåthie, created with artist and researcher Tarsh Bates.
The UmArts Research Residency was organised in partnership with Bildmuseet and Tráhppie Sami Cultural Centre during February 2026.
The installation is the first physical manifestation of Hansen and Ewerlöfs two year collaboration supported by the Swedish Research Council as an Exploratory Workshop grant for artistic research.