Berekraft Verkstad - Sustainability workshop

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In May of 2021, Margrethe Kolstad Brekke and Martin Andersen were invited by Kabuso Art Centre to create a Sustainability Workshop in Storeteigen Bygdetun in Hardanger, Norway. Through collaboration with the Energy Director at Bergen University Kristin Guldbrandsen Frøysa and world champion in acrobatic hang gliding Jon Gjerde, they addressed questions on “sustainable change” from different angles.

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The four-day workshop involved a professional seminar organized by Kristin Guldbrandsen Frøysa and Bergen Energylab on the topics of energy, future and sustainability. In addition to this, Jon Gjerde hosted a flight workshop during which participants were able to learn about hang gliding and have informal conversations about sustainable business development in the district. Gjerde also performed in the air in an act called Luftballett using a hang glider designed by Margrethe Kolstad Brekke.

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Martin Andersen on the other hand held a repair and DIY workshop with the idea of participants bringing something from their home to fix with Andersen’s help and creativity. In the old cottages of Storeteigen Bygdetun, you could also find Brekke’s exhibition that had been developed on the basis of transcribed interviews with Frøysa and Gjerde, which is also a farmer, and investor who throughout various new initiatives recontextualize pre-industrial knowledge and resource-management.

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Through her art, Brekke pondered which motifs from the past pre-industrial communities in Kvam Herad can function as ideals in connection with the great challenges of the day around sustainable change.

 

The project was supported by NBK Vederlagsfondet, the Norwegian Cultural Council and Bergen Municipality.