PRAKSIS Development Forum (PDF) is a monthly peer-discussion group for creative people. It offers a friendly, informal hub for practitioners to meet, share and discuss works in progress. Each session accommodates up to three participants who would like to receive feedback on a current project.
Participation in PDF is free. The event will be conducted in English.
PDF #61 will take place at Deichman Grünerløkka, where artists Sarah Sikorie and Jo Mikkel Sjaastad Huse will open the session by introducing their ongoing long-term research project into multispecies urban life. Responding to the ongoing renovation of the library and the displacement of the rat colony that has long occupied the Schous Plass area, the artists have been studying how rats navigate and adapt to the rebuilt environment. Since 2023 they have observed and documented this colony through film, sound, drawing and sculpture, using these encounters as a lens for thinking about coexistence, shared habitats, and the invisible infrastructures linking human and non-human life.
Building on this context, this session aims to open up broader questions around urban ecologies, care, displacement, folklore, architectural change, sensory worlds and how artistic practice can respond to shifting conditions in public space. It will be of particular interest to artists, curators, writers and researchers engaging with ecological or site-responsive practices, expanded drawing, narrative and sound-based approaches, interspecies perspectives and the shifting dynamics of urban life.
Book Your Place
Applications are warmly invited both from those who’d like to present and discuss works in progress, and from those who’d simply like to contribute to the discussion and learn about the PDF format. Booking is essential. To reserve a place please email pdf@praksisoslo.org
PDF Structure
Each presenting participant has about 30 minutes to share and discuss their work in progress. PDF’s focus is on development rather than reviewing outcomes, so please do not bring finished works or projects to the table. To help us stick to our schedule, please select a single work or self-contained project for presentation.
Practicalities
Works in progress can be shared by bringing in physical works as well as presenting a slideshow, reading or performance, or adopting any other suitable communication strategy. A projector and laptop will be made available. PDF encourages variety and experimentation, so please get in touch if you have questions about the format or special requirements.
More About Sarah Sikorie
Sarah Sikorie (b. 1991, DK) works across sculpture, drawing and research-based methods, often beginning with material traces and archaeological or environmental histories. Her practice centres overlooked objects, plants and animals as a means to rethink dominant narratives of nature, identity and belonging. She has exhibited at Centro Negra (ES), Alongprojekts (DK) and Galleri F15 (NO). Sikorie studied at the art academies in Bergen and Oslo and is currently studying archaeology at the University of Gothenburg. She also runs the public-space exhibition platform Vandrestaven.
More About Jo Mikkel Sjaastad Huse
Jo Mikkel Sjaastad Huse (b. 1991, Oslo) works across media with themes of labour, leisure, animals, objects, sound and language. His installations, performances and publications often present speculative narratives, frequently voiced by animated objects or animals reflecting on hierarchy, power and transformation. Trained in Oslo, Bergen and Stockholm, he also runs the micro-publishing house Publishing Publishing Nordic, collaborates on PUBLIC RETREAT, and performs with the techno group (OoO) Objektorientert Ontologi.
More About PDF
PDF’s monthly events offer a constructive space for artists, curators and writers to share and discuss their current practice. Its goal is to enable cultural practitioners to learn what other creatives are up to, speak about their own work and share their perspectives. It is open to individuals at all career stages and every participant’s contribution to the group is valued.
Support PDF
PDF is only partly funded by the Norwegian Arts Council. As with all of PRAKSIS’s activity, we intend to keep it free and open to all. If you’ve enjoyed taking part in PDF or have benefitted from some other feature of PRAKSIS’s programmes, please consider supporting us via www.patreon.com/praksisoslo. Every small contribution - for instance, the cost of a cup of coffee a month - helps us keep our programmes going.
About PRAKSIS
PRAKSIS is a non-profit arts catalyst that fosters creative practice and knowledge production through collective activity and the exchange of ideas, skills and information. PRAKSIS seeks to establish dialogue between artists, thinkers and organisations locally and internationally, at all career stages, and across diverse cultures and disciplines.
