Turpeinen, Lauri

English

Journal.fi

74 • Ethnologia Fennica vol. 44 Ways of Dwelling: Crisis – Craft – Creativity. 13th congress of SIEF in Göttingen, GermanyBetween the 26th and the 30th March of 2017 the Société Internationale d´Ethnologie et de Folklore (SIEF) had for the 13th time invited its members to join them for their biennial congress. Th is time the University of Göttingen had been cho-sen as the location and almost 800 researchers from Europe and beyond had followed the call to congregate in the medieval university town under the banner Ways of Dwelling: Crisis – Craft – Creativity.Already by early Sunday afternoon the con-gress had the central campus in a fi rm grip and while some where still setting up their very own temporary dwellings in the hotels of the city, oth-ers were already in queue to collect their confer-ence bags, mingling, or looking for a free seat in the main auditorium to take in the opening cer-emony and the fi rst keynote. Th e latter one did embrace all of the elements featured in the ti-tle of the congress: a crisis, countered with craft Ethnologia Fennica vol. 44 • 75and creativity. Th e keynote by the Amsterdam-based artists Dirk Jan Visser and Jan Rothuizen took the listeners with them to a refugee camp in Northern Iraq. Showing excerpts from their digital installation Refugee Republic, Visser and Rothuizen emphasized how the daily lives of the refugees belied narratives of helplessness and passivity. On the contrary they pointed out how for instance their entrepreneurial activities in the camp may even be understood to be the fi rst signs for the emergence of an entirely new city.In the four days that followed also the other keynotes explored the subject of dwelling, of be-ing and feeling at home, from various perspec-tives and with diff ering emphases. João de Pina-Cabral from the University of Kent used his key-note to analyze the impact of austerity measures in Southern Portugal. He noted, how under these adverse circumstances out-migration to Lisbon or to Central Europe is often understood to be the only chance for the young to better their sit-uation. Still, many remain bound to their home town through a sense of responsibility and emo-tional attachment. Th is also, he explained, be-cause the town and its familiar people are the only real certainty and security accessible to them.In the keynote on Tuesday, Trevor Marchand from SOAS went looking for the concept of dwell-ing in the works and practices of the London-based artist Andrew Omoding. He talked about how for Omoding the studio work with other artists represents a refuge from a hostile envi-ronment. Marchand showed how the art studio off ers Omoding not only a supportive communi-ty of fellow artists, but also how the practice of producing art itself – as dwelling in artwork - is providing him with stability, safety, and the feel-ing of being at home.Th e keynote on the next day, given by Maja Povrzanović Frykman from Malmö University, was in turn an interesting presentation about the role of everyday objects and material practices in transnational migration processes. Povrzanović Frykman analyzed in her presentation how such objects establish connections between diff erent homes and enable the continuation of familiar practices, which create experiences of stability and continuity for people on the move. Hence, she found, they are of central importance for the creation of a sense of homeliness.Alongside the keynotes, the audiovisual pro-gram, the various working groups and meetings, the poster sessions, the excursions and the gen-eral assembly, the congress consisted of 17 the-matic streams covering several subject areas of ethnology, folklore studies, and anthropology. According to the conference handbook there were at times up to 21 panels taking place simultane-ously. Hence, considering the large scale of the event, the organizing committee of the congress most certainly has to be complimented for hav-ing managed it very well to arrange and commu-nicate the vast program in a comprehensible and logical manner.For myself, those four sunny spring days in Göttingen have been fi lled with glimpses into research topics ranging from how Wicca practi-tioners reclaim urban space in Berlin to clashes surrounding major infrastructural projects, from the ways in which people inhabit digital space to translocal living practices, from the relationships between homes and the materiality of books to the rural home as a site of production and, of course, many more. Th e wide array of diff er-ent topics was bound together well through the shared focus on the idea of dwelling. With it the organizers chose a central concept and leitmotif for the congress that is both timeless and topi-cal and presumably has some meaning to most researchers dealing with aspects of everyday life.From the many presentations I had the pleas-ure to see during the congress the following ones have left the strongest impressions. Firstly, the film screening Three Art Probes – between Art Practice and Cultural Analysis by Robert Willim from Lund University has to be mentioned. In the screening Willim presented three of his video works that all were examining the intersections between art and cultural analysis, and he off ered a compelling and diff erent take on the process of doing research this way. Also the paper Proxi-mate strangers: caring remotely on the west coast of Scotland by Mackenzie Cramblit from Duke Uni-versity left a positive impression. In it, Cramblit gave intriguing and vivid insights into the daily life of an isolated community in which the man-76 • Ethnologia Fennica vol. 44aging of remoteness and the care for others are the primary ways for sustaining itself. Further-more, Johann Mueske from Deutsches Museum in Munich presented an interesting study with his paper When the future looked old: new social-cultural movements, and the re-scaling of an infra-structure in “Paradise” (Constance, 1960s-80s). In his presentation Mueske talked about the success-ful protests of citizens against plans for building an Autobahn through a neighborhood of Con-stance, a city in the Southwest of Germany. His paper showed how in confl icts like this one com-peting ideas about the quality and meaning of a place become manifest. Also materially, for which for instance the remnants of the over-sized bridge built for the ultimately unfi nished Autobahn can be taken as a symbol.Th e four conference days had passed by very fast and, at least for myself, it was almost within the proverbial blink of an eye that the last day and the closing event had arrived. At said last evening Hermann Bausinger, professor emeritus at the University of Tübingen, explored the aging pro-cess, novel categories of old age(s), and the devel-opment of housing conditions in his closing key-note Dwellings and Dwindlings. Afterwards, the concluding remarks by Beate Binder from Hum-boldt University Berlin, Walter Leimgruber from the University of Basel, and by the congress cov-enor and host Regina Bendix of the University of Göttingen offi  cially closed the congress, and then released the delegates to prepare themselves for the conference banquet and the fi nal party later that night. Over the course of the four days it was also announced that the 14th SIEF congress will be taking place 2019 in Santiago de Compostela in Spain. Lastly, it can also be revealed that during the congress Helsinki too has offi  cially thrown its hat in the ring to be considered as a possible lo-cation for the 15th SIEF congress in 2021, which may be a piece of information of particular inter-est for the readership of this publication.Lauri Turpeinen

Ways of Dwelling: Crisis, Craft, Creativity: 13th congress of SIEF in Göttingen, Germany

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Ways of Dwelling: Crisis, Craft, Creativity: 13th congress of SIEF in Göttingen, Germany

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