as a value for the future In the north of Europe lies a territory older than the borders that were later drawn across it. It is called Sápmi: the traditional homeland of the Sámi. This area stretches across what is now Northern Norway, Northern Sweden, Northern Finland and the Kola Peninsula in Russia. Sápmi is not a modern state, but a cultural, spiritual and ecological landscape. It is a territory of languages, family histories, reindeer, rivers, mountains, forests, memories and routes passed down through generations. The Sámi are often captured in a single image: the reindeer herder in a snowy landscape. That image is not incorrect, but it is too limited. Not all Sámi are reindeer herders. Sámi identity also...
Annelies Nuy is currently developing Post-Colonial Gold, a research project at the intersection of art, fashion, and value systems. The project examines the shift of gold from a carrier of meaning in pre-colonial cultures to its current role as an economic instrument embedded within systems of power, ownership, and global distribution. In pre-colonial contexts, gold functioned within spiritual, social, and relational systems. During colonial expansion, this meaning was replaced by a model based on extraction, accumulation, and control. Post-Colonial Gold makes this shift explicit and places the historical meaning of gold in contrast with another understanding of value. From gold to meaning Where gold once represented connection, ritual, and collective meaning, it was reduced within the colonial system to ownership...
Magdalene Odundo (b. 1950, Nairobi) occupies a singular position within contemporary ceramics. Her work resists conventional categorisation as either craft or sculpture, instead operating within a refined territory where material, form, and cultural memory converge. Educated in Kenya, India, and later the United Kingdom, Odundo’s practice is grounded in both Western academic training and sustained engagement with traditional ceramic techniques. Her formative travels in Nigeria and New Mexico exposed her to hand-built pottery traditions and burnishing methods that continue to underpin her work. These influences are neither quoted nor appropriated; rather, they are assimilated into a coherent and highly personal visual language. Process and Material Intelligence Odundo’s vessels are constructed using coiling techniques, a method that allows for precise control...
