Roska vain aaret? - Trash or Treasure?
Roska vain aaret? – Trash or Treasure? is a photo exhibit, based on a storytelling event of the same name, which explores what Kven objects can be. This time you can see both older objects such as soldering iron, wool shorts and woven rug, and more modern ones, like ruikkulakki and Kven hat. Tervettulemaa!
In 2022, when the temporary exhibit Tuulessa came to Alta Museum, we declared it open by placing a vadbein and a blood letting horn on a pedestal. The next day they were put on display and exhibited as treasures.
To create the Alta-part of the exhibition, we invited locals to bring their own objects that represent something Kven for them: whether it is something they keep as a treasure, or whether it is scrap hidden in an old shed. With that we held Roska vain aaret? - Trash or Treasure? Young and old came to this event with a wide range of objects and stories: family maps, porcelain cups, woven ribbons, old drills and much more. The storytellers, the objects and extracts from the stories were presented in the exhibition Roska vain aaret? which was shown at Alta Museum until April 2023.
The need for attributes that can symbolize Kven identity today is as big as ever, and the uncertainty many experience about what qualifies as "Kven enough" has inspired us to take this project further. In November 2023, Alta Museum held a new Roska vain aaret? - Trash or Treasure? event, which this exhibition is based on.
Photo: Rune Sjøstedt/FIlmmark