Marta Kuzma

Hannah Ryggen was born in 1894 in Malmö, Sweden, and lived until her death on a farm in Norway. Over fifty years, the artist wove tapestries with critical contemporary motifs. In her introduction to Ryggen's notebook, Marta Kuzma recapitulates the crucial phase at the beginning of the world economic crisis of 1928, when the rise of fascism in Europe caused an existential dilemma for many people. Walter Benjamin described the precariousness of the situation with the figure of a "little hunchback," as a metaphor for the broken and desperate situation in which many Europeans were stuck. Instead of falling into resignation, the pacifist, communist, and feminist Ryggen materialized her thoughts about her time in an unsuspicious medium. In a deeply ideological and fear-driven time, she hung her hand-woven tapestries that depicted and reordered the power constellations and atrocity of society in dreamlike sceneries outside her window during the German occupation of Norway.


 


With images, a short autobiography of the artist, and a textile-coloring recipe.


 


Hannah Ryggen (1894–1970) was a Norwegian artist, born in Sweden.


 


Marta Kuzma (*1964) is a curator and lecturer, and Director of the Office for Contemporary Art Norway, Oslo; she is a member of dOCUMENTA (13)'s Core Agent Group.


 


Language: English/German