RUUKKU Issue 22: Parallel indigeneities, art worlds and frictions

RUUKKU – Studies in Artistic Research's newest Issue is released

ISSUE No 22

Parallel indigeneities, art worlds and frictions

Editors: Lea Kantonen, Hanna Guttorm, Pekka Kantonen and Priska Falin

Read Issue 22 here

Read the Editorial here

 In our call for contributions, the authors were invited to join us in reflecting on the questions about the art of Indigenous people and the coexistence of multiple art worlds. 

Through sustainability transformation, we have become aware of the need to find new kinds of relations between groups of people, species, environments, and forces of nature. In artistic research, and in art more widely, the art of Indigenous peoples is currently topical, as Western artists and researchers are challenged to think in a more holistic and responsible way by Indigenous peoples' practices in perceiving themselves as part of the environment. The focus in Indigenous art is not that often on the creative individual – instead, art reminds us about the interaction between human communities and forces of nature.

Eight expositions were selected for this issue. Three of them (Marija Griniuk; Mirja Liisa Hiltunen & Maria Huhmarniemi; and Korinna Korsström-Magga) discuss the community art made in Sápmi, three of them discuss the ritual-based art of the Mexican Wixárika people (Lola Cervantes; Hanna Ellen Guttorm, Lea Kantonen, Pekka Kantonen & Juan Carrillo Rios; and Lea Kantonen), one discusses the songs of the Taiwanese Tao people (Johannes Kretz & Wei-Ya Lin), and one (Anna Nygren) discusses the connections between art made by autistic artists and Indigenous peoples. The focus in seven expositions is on visual arts, and one exposition focuses on music. Several contributors live in or near Indigenous communities, and at least two of them are Indigenous themselves. In addition to the publications selected for the issue, we have asked Outi Laiti to contribute to the issue's Voices.

This Ruukku issue has been edited as part of the research project Taking Back the Museum – Opening the Space of Community Museums to Recover the Art of Indigenous People (2021–2025), funded by the Kone Foundation, which brings together artistic research and Indigenous studies.

Image: Teachers of the Emiliano Zapata primary school preparing a traditional yarn painting in Puwarika, Nayarit, México. Photo: Lea Kantonen 2024