Because we wanted to harness its potential in as many ways as possible but also to attract new communities to our Archive, we entered a partnership with PRAKSIS, a Norwegian organization specializing in developing interdisciplinary artists’ residency programs. Together we established the first residency at the Romanian Peasant Museum.
PRAKSIS
An art, cultural and learning center based in Oslo, PRAKSIS is dedicated to working with artists, creators and partner institutions to develop personalized thematic residencies.
The center focuses on intercultural dialog and exchanges, using its activities (artistic residencies, peer-to-peer mentorship, youth programs and publication editing) to raise awareness on current global issues (climate crisis, inclusion, technology development, etc.).
From 2016 to present, PRAKSIS has organized twenty-five thematic residencies—including public talks, workshops, exhibitions, and other events—with the participation of over 200 artists, curators, musicians, academics, scientists from Norway and all over the world.
Our partnership with PRAKSIS aims to attract new artists for the extended residency, organize a joint exhibition in Oslo, promote Romanian cultural heritage in Norway, and explore new ways to use archives creatively.
Ellef Prestsæter
A resident of the DEAR ARCHIVE project, he is a curator and art historian, with a BA in Aesthetic Studies at the University of Oslo and member of the Scandinavian Institute for Computational Vandalism artistic research group. Ellef has a lot of experience working with archives and art, as she builds her projects at the intersection of several disciplines: history, literature, aesthetic, hard sciences, and fiction.
The residency program is a collaboration between Daniel Varga and Ellef Prestsæter. Daniel sells issues of =OSLO magazine in Norway to support his family in Brădeni (Romania). Ellef runs the Guttormsgaard Archive, an independent art institution in Blaker (Norway). The trailer for their exhibition uses images from the National Museum of the Romanian Peasant Archive and Guttormsgaard's Archive. The residency will continue in 2024, in the form of a bilingual publication and an installation to be displayed in the Archive Hall, a room included in the permanent visit tour of the National Museum of the Romanian Peasant.