Projects
Min folketone
2015-2022
Min folketone is a collection, documentation and dissemination project of folksongs. Basically, each of us have a folk tone. Regardless of who we are and where we come from, song and music often play a central role in childhood and adolescence. The folk tone is a part of the cultural heritage and represents a continuation of the dear and familial throughout generations. In this project we are asking: What is YOUR folk tone? Min folketone is a platform and a sanctuary where it is not about being the best singer or having the best song. Here it is about conveying what is close and dear to you. Welcome to Min folketone!
Min folketone is run by Villa Lofoten in colboration with the Norwegian Kvedar Forum, FolkOrg, Hilmestemnet and Valdresmusea with support from the Arts Council.
Film: Aaslaug Vaa, Tor Edvin Eliassen and Jørn Nyseth Ranum
Publishing: Sigrun Agøy Engum
The BANDS
2015
In the spring of 2015, the Architectural College in Oslo chose to conduct their course Scarcity and Creativity at Kleivan. 22 students and two instructors from all over Europe participated in concept development, projections and physical construction of a sauna and outdoor recreational area.
The project was carried out by the Architectural College in Oslo, under the leadership of architecture professor Christian Hermansen and civil engineer Solveig Sandness.
See the project's website here, and video here.
The Search for the Secret Taste
2014
Many of us are unaware of the existence of a fifth taste: UMAMI. In the kitchen, it supplements salt and sour, sweet and bitter. Umami means “good tasting” in Japanese. The Japanese have known about this taste for hundreds of years, but Western culture has only recently caught onto it. You find this taste in Parmesan cheese, tomatoes, soy sauce, mushrooms and seaweed. The future lies in the ocean. The spectrum of natural resources we utilize must be widened to cover the world’s demand for food. Today, 98% of all food comes from dry land. One of the goals for food research and technology is to find ways for local and reasonably priced to be produced in large quantities without damaging the earth’s resources. Seaweed is such a resource – and, believe it or not, it can be used for a wide range of culinary purposes. The Nordic project The Search for the Secret Taste, begun in May 2014, aimed to spread awareness of seaweed’s enormous potential as a food.
Research and Development
A team of researchers was involved in this project.
Marine biologist Michael Roleda (Phillipines) and research leader/veterinarian Margarita Novoa Garrido (Spain), both work for NIBIO in Bodø. Joining them were marine biologist Henning Røed from Oslo, cultural sociologist Søren Espersen from Kulturlandskab dk in Copenhagen, social anthropologist Bente Rød Larsen from Nord University in Bodø, and food researcher Gunnþórunn Einarsdóttir, working for MATIS in Reykjavik.
During an open seminar at Kvalnes community hall, the researchers held lectures, participated in networking meetings, and beach excursions and workshops with a local 8th grade class. Over a period of four days in Lofoten, the team exchanged their experience and ideas, and discussed future collaboration.
Beach Excursions
Søren Espersen and Michael Roleda led three beach excursions with an impressive turnout. The participants learned about different types of seaweed that can easily be found at low tide and about other edible resources found near the sea.
Food Workshop
A Nordic chef team completed a food workshop with a focus on seaweed as a taste additive. The team consisted of Leif Sørensen from Torshavn, Thorir Bergsson from Reykjavik, Siv Hilde Lillehaug from Henningsvær and food writer Magnus Thorvik from Geitmyra Food Culture Center for Children in Oslo. Photographer Guri Dahl from Oslo, with her assistant Charlott Dazan from Kabelvåg, photographed the dishes the chefs prepared.
The food workshop was arranged by Skolestua Haukland with significant assistance from owners Michaela and Jochen Fechner.
Taste Workshop
A class of 20 eighth-grade students from Bøstad School participated in a taste workshop under leadership of social anthropologist Bente Rød Larsen. Here, marine biologist Michael Roleda introduced the students to nine types of seaweed and taught them to make wakame salad, pudding and seaweed pickles, using recipes from the Philippines. Through the preparation of the pudding, the students experienced seaweed’s great potential as a thickening agent. Søren Espersen showed the students a way to be self-sufficient with snacks: toasted seaweed with a little salt and oil could easily be a new favorite to munch on in front of the TV-screen.
Throughout the workshop, the students also went went
seaweed-picking along the beach and learned to hang it to dry. Their immediate reactions to the taste of the seaweed were mixed – even blue mussels were a new taste for many of them. In the chefs’ kitchen they caught a glimpse of the chefs’ handiwork and high working tempo.
Film Documentation
The entire workshop The Search for the Secret Taste was documented by cinematographer Virginie Surdej from Brussels and Jørn Nyseth Ranum from Eggum (underwater footage); audio by Olivier Touche from Paris and Olav Søla from Brønnøysund; director and producer Sebastian Schelenz from Brussels and Aaslaug Vaa from Bodø; production assistant
Tor Edvin Eliassen from Ballangen and assistants Sondre Sandbakken from Bardu and Johannes Brettengen from Leknes; editing by Lenka Filnerova from Brussels.
Click here to see the documentation of the workshop.
In cooperation with Nordisk Ministerråd, Nordland County, Fylkesmann i Nordland, Vestvågøy Municipality, Regional Research Fund, NIBIO, Nord University, Bergesenstiftelsen, Norsk Filminstitutt and Film & Kino.
Press
Tang er en råvare som bør komme på tallerkenene i Norge (Lofotposten)
Lofoten har gode forutsetninger for kommersiell utnyttelse av tang (Lofotposten)
Ville du spist dette? (Avisa Nordland)
Michael Roledas filippinska blåmusslor (Sveriges Radio)
Tangseminar i Lofoten (Norsk Algeforening)
Year By Year in Vestvågøy
2013-2014
Technical excellence isn’t always what makes a photograph compelling. Some pictures are good because they illustrate a story; some pictures are good because they contain stories within themselves. Some pictures are good because they create stories in the mind.
The pilot project Year By Year in Vestvågøy, in collaboration with Vestvågøy History Club, focused on the collection and presentation of historical amateur photography from the island of Vestvågøy in the Lofoten Islands.
Photography came to Norway around 1850, with the first professionals creating portraits and landscapes. By the end of the 1800s, it had its breakthrough, leading to more and more amateurs and semi-professional photographers. After 1900, photography worked its way into people’s private lives. Amateur photography is included in most historical collections, but the actual study of amateur photography remains overlooked. This project is a contribution to such a study, through focusing exclusively on private photography in a specific geographical area.
Photographs, often, are collected so that a more complete story may be told, for example about railroad construction or the voyage of a ship. In this project, frameworks of time and geographical area were our only parameters. Going back as far into the past as possible, we collected a minimum of three pictures from every year until the year 2000, exclusively photographed in Vestvågøy. In addition, when possible, we tracked down the image owner’s stories about the picture. Together, these images present a patchwork of stories from many lives, both verbally and visually.
During Lofoten BygdeFilmFest 2014, the results of this collection were presented in the slideshow Year By Year in Vestvågøy. This slideshow was based on a selection from the 2500 collected pictures, from between 1860 and 2000. The show was structured chronologically, but with tangents on themes like the history of photography and postcards, a journey around and over Vestvågøy,
and themes like men and women. The text was presented verbally and was compiled of people’s stories about their own pictures, historical facts, and local anecdotes. The show was presented by the project’s collaborating photographer Guri Dahl and art historian Aaslaug Vaa.
The project was produced in cooperation with Vestvågøy History Club and with support from Norsk kulturråd, Fritt Ord, Bergesenstiftelsen, Lofotrådet, Vestvågøy Municipality and Lofotposten through Lofoten BygdeFilmFest 2013 and 2014.
