KARP25, Atakpamé (Togo), November 2025 – theme: Cultural Revitalization
I worked for two weeks at KARP – Kamina Artist and Researchers Residency Platform in Atakpamé, Togo, a platform for artists and researchers. During five concentrated days, I painted an outdoor mural with patterns inspired by textile traditions from both Togo and Norway. The choice of colors was intuitive and gradually developed as the painting took shape.
The stones I worked on are ruins of what was once Africa’s largest radio transmitter, developed by the German colonial power and later blown up after the First World War. I painted using two types of local clay, bissap, egg, and pigments I had brought from Norway. The work is temporary and will eventually be washed away by rain. The mural was created together with both young and old participants and gradually evolved into a collective project.
Textile Work: Lisa, Torunn, Aisha
The history of the work begins in Finnmark, is painted in Oslo, and completed in Togo. During the residency in Atakpamé, I brought with me a cloth from Norway with a painting of my great-grandmother and me, based on a family photograph. I was five years old when the picture was taken, and I remember that she did not understand Norwegian. She was Kven and Sámi and lived her entire life in Finnmark.
In Atakpamé I met Aisha, who continues a local embroidery tradition. She embroidered onto the cloth and thereby completed the work. She was given full artistic freedom and continued composing the story by placing us in an African context, with local culture and nature. In this way, the textile has traveled from one woman’s hand to another.