100 MIGRATORY – project description

A local and world-wide art project
dealing with the notion of origin and migration

 From the innermost warm core of Sami life
my art starts on a journey.
This tells of venturing away from security
to face the unknown. 

A hundred glass vessels depart on a return journey, starting in their home in the vast, winter-white mountains of Sápmi-Sameland. From there the vessels migrate on their several journeys to different countries, environments and cultures. They will be presented, first and last as a group, but also as individuals. How will each be judged and evaluated in a new surrounding? Who will see them? To what new purpose might they be used? Will they return undamaged? Each piece will acquire its own history, eager to be told.

This project is a story to stress the importance of a secure warm nucleus in the life of every individual, while at the same time it argues the value of venturing out of original security, at least for a time, in order to gain understanding and respect for otherness.

In linking together the Sami tradition and glass with international influences, these glass vessels can be seen as messengers – and metaphors – for ourselves. A vessel artistically produced and with its allusion to life itself, can bring into focus such human questions as identity, origin, allegiance and migration.

In taking the initiative for this project, artist Monica Edmondson means that all of us have a responsibility to act in preventing conflicts, whether they are of a minor nature, in our immediate environment, or catastrophic threats such as mass murder. She argues here for a better world in which strangeness is not met with fear and hate, but rather with curiosity including a will to understand difference.

100 MIGRATORY is an extensive art project divided into sections as follows.

Part I, the construction of the hundred vessels, taking years, was completed in December 2011.
Part II, the local journey of the vessels to the Ulldevis mountains, took place in February 2012.
Part III, in which the vessels travel individually to countries all over the world.
Part IV, is collaboration with the dancer and choreographer Carmen Olsson, Norrlandsoperan, resulting in a dance performance part of the exhibition 2014.

All the time the project is on-going, documentation will be maintained with blog, film and photograph. The exhibition 100 MIGRATORY will be open 1 February – 11 May 2014 at the Museum of Västerbotten as part of Rock Art in Sápmi and Umeå 2014 European Capital of Culture.

Project description as pdf