Forged Narratives – Art, Memory, and Material in Contemporary Blacksmithing
Held at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts (KHIO), this two-day event brought together artists, students, alumni, and invited guests to examine the evolving language of contemporary blacksmithing, object-making, jewellery, korpus, and medium-scale sculpture in Scandinavia. Through exhibitions, lectures, workshops, guided tours, and performances, the program created a living dialogue between material knowledge and conceptual inquiry.
In a time when objects were in constant revaluation, we asked:
What is an object today?
How do we define and categorize it?
Where does function end and metaphor begin?
What do we need in order to recognize something as an object?
From ornament to tool, from vessel to body-related form, objects structure human life. Yet their meanings are never fixed. Within the Metal and Art Jewellery Subject Area at KHIO, questioning the object — its format, scale, function, symbolism, and philosophical dimensions — forms a core pedagogical and artistic concern. IRON NOTES extends this investigation into a public arena.
Seminar 15–16 April | 09:00–14:00
The symposium gathered professional speakers alongside a discussion forum, offering a broad overview of the development of contemporary blacksmithing in Europe and Scandinavia. Each invited artist was selected for their professional trajectory, technical mastery, and distinctive artistic voice. Their work and function represented central thematic strands of the event:
- Memory, History, and Traditions – How inherited techniques and cultural narratives were preserved, challenged, or transformed.
- Inventiveness in Material – How experimentation and technical innovation expanded the expressive vocabulary of iron.
- Sources of Inspiration – Personal, political, environmental, and philosophical impulses shaping contemporary practice.
The seminar positioned blacksmithing not only as craft, but as a critical artistic practice — where forging became a method of thinking, and material became narrative.
Program
See the full program
Wednesday 15th April – Auditorium KHIO
08:30 Registration – Coffee
09:00 Welcome and Introduction
Prof. Jorge Manilla – Markus Degerman- Hanna Gjelten Hattrem
09:45 From One Small Bird to a Swarm – Artistic Practice Across Scales and Spaces
Toril Bonsanken, Artist
10:30 Balancing Gravity (Everything is in there)
Kristine Sandoy, Artist
11:15 Coffee Break
11:35 From anvil to adornment; the poetry of iron
Carin EM Reinders, Director CODA Museum, Apeldoorn
12:20 Students presentations
13:00 Lunch break
14:00 WORKSHOPS
Please note that the workshops have limited capacity and participants will register on site.
Sketching with wire by Antti Nieminen (Blackmithing Workshop KHIO)
Sculpting in Sand, Casting in Light by Johannes Vemren Rygh (Metal workshop)
Pressing Ideas – between the positive and negative by Heiner Zimmerman (Metal workshop)
18:00 Opening Exhibitions – Gallery Seilduken, Katedralen, Reception Gallery
Welcome words by Prof. Jorge Manilla – Gallery Seilduken 18:00
Music Performance – Niord Alexander Hauge Sund
21:00 Social Gathering – Akers Mek All participants are welcome
16 April – Auditorium KHIO
08:30 Coffee
09:00 Camilla Low, Visual Artist
09:45 Mittens and other stories
Eija Mustonen, Artist & Development Specialist, LAB University of Applied Sciences
10:30 The ferrous beast and the toolnes of things
Tobias Birgersson, Artist
11:15 Coffee Break
11:35 Raw Blocks of Black Iron
Nils Hint, Artist
12:20 Forged by Women
Ada Nilsen, Mia Veen, Madelen Isa Lindgren
13:00 Lunch break
14:00 WORKSHOPS
Please note that the workshops have limited capacity and participants will register on site.
Sketching with wire by Antti Nieminen (Blacksmithing Workshop KHIO)
Sculpting in Sand, Casting in Light by Johannes Vemren Rygh (Metal workshop)
Pressing Ideas – between the positive and negative by Heiner Zimmerman (Metal workshop)
18:00 Closing Performance – Katedralen Khio
21:00 – 23:00 Social Gathering – Akers Mek
All participants are welcome
Exhibitions 15–16 April 2026
KHIO hosted three exhibitions presenting works by Iron Notes project members, students, invited artists, and special guests. Together, they formed a layered landscape of approaches to objects, jewellery, korpus, and sculpture.
The exhibitions aimed to provide a comprehensive yet dynamic view of contemporary iron-based practices in Scandinavia. Rather than presenting iron as a closed tradition, they revealed it as a responsive, evolving field — intimate, architectural, political, and poetic.
15 April 18:00 – Performance Seilduken Gallery
16 April 18:00 – Closing Performance – Katedralen KHIO
Exhibition 1: IRON NOTES — Forging Memory, Crafting Futures – Katedralen
Exhibition 2: IRON NOTES — Networks of Fire and Form – Reception Gallery
Exhibition 3: IRON NOTES — Tangible Heritage in Contemporary Iron – Gallery seilduken
