Hilde Methi

Hilde Methi (1969, Kirkenes, Norway) is an independent curator based in Kirkenes. Her work investigates the relationship of her own locale to a larger geopolitical setting. Based on her interest in local history, politics and economy, she builds up ongoing projects and art collectives infusing artistic ideas into the local context. After leaving her position at Pikene på broen in 2008 she conceived the Sámi Art Festival in various places in the Barents Region and Sápmi (initiated by the Sami Artists Union, 2008–11); co-curated russianmarket.info – Taking Inventory, Uqbar (2011); Extreme Crafts, Freies Museum, Berlin (2012); and Nørrekærbiennalen (2014). She is also involved in the art collectives Mobile Kultur Byrå (2006–), which looks at the trading climate in particular contexts; LUJA (2005–) which connects contemporary art, design and indigenous crafts; and the Rural Reading Room (2012–), which highlights the materiality of the landscape using a tabletop as its format. She was a curator of the Dark Ecology project with Sonic Acts (Amsterdam), which took place over three years, focusing on border zone of Norway / Russia, and included installations, films, sound works on a bus, and on a frozen lake. Part of those commissions are now visible at SALT in Oslo. Her exhibition Indigenous Peoples of the North in 1995 was held at the Norwegian-Russian Art Centre in Kirkenes, and consisted of art by women artists from Northern Sweden, Finland, Norway and from Naryan Mar in Russia (where the Nenets people are living). [1]