| dc.description.abstract | Amy Franceschini will show a selection of work done under the umbrella of Futurefarmers, an international art collective as a means to ground the modes and methods they use. She will introduce Flatbread Society, a constellation of new works that are rooted in Oslo, but extends to a decentralized network of people and places.
Flatbread Society is a permanent public art project created in a “common” area amidst the waterfront development of Bjørvika, in Oslo, Norway. In 2012, the international arts collective, Futurefarmers formed Flatbread Society as a proposition for working with local actors to establish an aligned vision for the use of this land. Flatbread Society uses grain as a prismatic impetus to consider the interrelationship of food production to realms of knowledge sharing, cultural production, socio-political formations and everyday life. The groups’ dynamic activation of the site through public programs, a bakehouse and a cultivated grain field has attracted the imagination of farmers, bakers, oven builders, artists, activists, soil scientists, city officials; while simultaneously resulting in the formation of an urban gardening community called Herligheten. Flatbread Society’s activities in Oslo center around facilitating an open framework to collectively develop this site into a permanent stage for art and action, as well as a shared resource revolving around urban food production and the preservation of the commons. In 2014, an official renaming of the site was established. The collectively coined name “Losæter” combines two Norwegian terms for the commons, “Loallmenning” and “sæter”. “Lo” points to the geographic location of the site being near the water and “sæter” refers the right to put animals to pasture and to put up a house for the summer. Losæter captures spirit of the project at large and connects to Norway’s agricultural heritage in a continuum of past to future. As Losæter evolves, the practice and metaphor of cultivation are linked to larger ideas of self-determination and organic processes in the development of land use, social relations, and cultural forms. The openness and fluidity of the projects evolving at Losæter stand in stark contrast to the rational logic of development in the surrounding areas of Bjørvika. Situated amongst the National Opera, the Munch Museum, Deichmanske Library and the National Stock Exchange, Flatbread Society positions Losæter within the cultural legacy of the city. | nb_NO |