CFP: “COLLECTIONS” – 13th triennial NORDIK Conference of Art History in the Nordic Countries (Online, 24-28 Oct 2022)

The NORDIK Association for Art Historians is hereby announcing a call for papers for the upcoming conference taking place 24.-28.10. 2022 under the heading “Collections”.

Confirmed keynote speakers: 
Steven ten Thije, Head of collections, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Netherlands
Susanna Pettersson, Director General, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, Sweden

Deadline: 9 May 2022

Collections are the basis for art history as we know it. Whether in museums or on the pages of treatises, we bring objects and artworks together and ascribe meaning to them. Throughout history, artmaking has been deeply entwined with collecting. Collections give power – over history, over art, over taste, and ultimately over the future. Arguing about and intervening in collections can also be a fight for alternatives and other futures, or a way to right past wrongs. Collections are born from creativity, and they can stifle new creations. Many artworks are collections in themselves and the collection itself can be seen as an artwork. No matter the perspective, collections are deeply bound to art history.

Preference will be given to paper proposals that are at a high level of reflexivity and at the forefront of research and practice in art history or related branches of study such as visual culture, critical theory or museum studies. Contributions based upon artistic research and practice are highly welcome.
Papers can be submitted to one of the following sessions, for detailed session descriptions and contact information to the session chairs, see the NORDIK webpages: nordikassociation.com/conference-2022/.

– Not just Art: Pre-Modern Collections and Collecting (Charlotta Krispinsson and Ylva Haidenthaller) 
– Architects as Collectors (Anna Bortolozzi)
– The Catalogue Raisonné: Above and Beyond Collections (Ane Hejlskov Larsen and Tove Haugsbø) 
– Collecting Knowledge: Early Modern Books between Theory and Practice (Maria Fabricius Hansen)
– Providing Propositions: Collections as agents in Institutionalising Processes of the 20th century (Magdalena Holdar and Jessica Sjöholm Skrubbe) 
– What’s in Store? Intersectional, indigenous, and decolonial perspectives on collection work (Johanne Løgstrup and Line Ellegaard) 
– Passing on stories – Collective memories and the canon (Ellen Suneson and Johanna Rosenqvist) 
– Doing Art History Online (Anna Orrghen and Anna Dahlgren)
– Artists’ Books: Networks and Collections (Jóhannes Dagsson) 
– Polish art in Nordic Collections, Post-1945 until today (Camilla Larsson, Karolina Kolenda and Malgorzata Kazmierczak) 
– Home is Where the Art is. Critical perspectives on artistic residences in the Nordic Countries 1850–1950 (Tonje Haugland Sørensen and Tove Haugsbø)
– Blind Spots: Hidden narratives and how to deal with them (Susanna Petterson and Martin Olin)
– Under one Roof. How can we make collection displays of merged museums for contemporary audiences? (Mai Britt Guleng)
– Nordic (Art) Museums and the Question of Decolonization (Mathias Danbolt and Mårten Snickare) 
– A New Enlightenment? Working to make digitised collections sustain democratic engagement (Kira Kofoed, Karin Glasemann, Merete Sanderhoff and Jonathan Beck)
– Challenging canon: Exhibition production as a critical institutional practice (Julie Lejsgaard Christensen, Kamma Overgaard Hansen, Christine Tommerup and Lærke Maria Andersen Funder)
– Gender, Sexualities and Collections (Ulla Angkjær Jørgensen and Sigrun Åsebø)
– Repositioning design (in) collections: 1960–1980 (Leena Svinhufvud and Sabina Maria Rossau)
– Trash or Treasure. Public Care for Private Collections (Peder Valle and Beata Labuhn)
– Collective Histories: On the Radical Potential of Permanent Exhibitions (Tuva Mossin and Jakob Myklebust Huus)
– Rethinking (Trans)National Galleries in the North (Anna Vestergaard Jørgensen, Nivi Christensen  and Karina Lykke Grand)
– When Private and Public Collections meet (Frida Forsgren, Hanne Cecilie Gulstad and Else-Brit Kroneberg)
– Bringing Collections Home (Monica Grini, Hanne Hammer Stien, Elin Haugdal, Hanna Horsberg Hansen, Irene Snarby and Stephanie von Spreter)
– The ‘problem’ of the Design Archive as a collection (Christina Pech and Mark Ian Jones)
– New Perspectives on Jewish Art Collecting and Patronage in the Nordic Countries (Rasmus Kjærboe)
– Exhibiting and collecting art of the North in Eastern Europe – exhibiting and collecting art of Eastern Europe in the North (Kristian Handberg and Yulia Karpova)
– Fear of knowledge: Artists’ book collections (Lejla Mrgan)
– Letters from the Archive: Collecting and researching artists’ letters in Art History (Karen Westphal Eriksen)
– Archiving Machines: the life (and archival death?) of counter-culture collections (Wylie Schwartz)
– A Future Government Art Collection (Elisabeth Byre, Nora C. Nerdrum, Ida Højgaard Thjømøe and Drew Snyder)
– Curating Identity, Shaping a People (MaryClaire Pappas, Patricia Berman and Cynthia Osiecki)

The conference will be held online via zoom sessions to be accessible.

We will accept paper proposals until May 9th 2022. The proposals must be in English and include a title, short description of the theme/subject of the presentation (max. 250 words), contact information of the organizers and keywords (max 1 page). 

Please submit your proposal via e-mail to the session chairs – see contact info in the description of each panel at the NORDIK webpages: nordikassociation.com/conference-2022/.

Questions can be directed to the session chairs regarding each session. 
For general inquiries regarding NORDIK contact: info@nordikarthistory.org.