Camille Auer – the current MJF fellow staying in the house – is an artist and writer who has a long lasting special interest in Critical Queer Bird Studies. She works around questions of how norms related to gender and sexuality shape human understanding of birds – and the world. There will be a little display of bird books and Auer will share insights from her years-long research processes.

Homosexual behaviour is not rare among birds, but nature media rarely mentions it. Birds might go through a kind of sex change during their life and there are myriads of ways features that might be considered gendered show up in birds. Nevertheless, humans tend to think that all males are like men and all females are like women. Auer will offer concrete examples of divergent sex and sexuality among birds and a suggestion to consider things from the birds’ perspective.

Camille Auer is a Helsinki-based artist and writer. Ruff Knowledge, Auer’s speech performance about the extravagant sex lives of Ruffs (Calidris pugnax, brushane) has toured internationally and will be published as a book by Errant Bodies Press. She will have her eighth solo exhibition at the end of 2026 at Sinne gallery in Helsinki. She has published essays, poetry and art writing in Finland and internationally. She loves arctic wading birds, mudflats, strong tides and the smell of seaweed. Currently she is getting very nerdy about working with ambisonic sound. 
Photo credits:  niko wearden

Welcome to visit the Maaretta Jaukkuri Foundation in Kvalnes on Saturday September 12, 11:00–18:00 2026. MJF Fellow Camille Auer shares insights from her research into birds, gender, sexuality and queer perspectives. Coffee and tea will be served.

MJF is joining Lofoten Art Open for the first time

The Place at Haverringen 954, will be open to all during the weekend 7-8 September, 12.00-19.00 both days.

Please visit us for a tour of the house or visit to our library!

7 pm - 10 pm Live Event:
Tuomas Toivonen/Live Performance, Timo Kaukolampi/Live Performance, Alex Murray Leslie/performance talk

Listening Room 3 pm - 6 pm: Tommi Grönlund, Thora Dolven Balke and Rikke Lundgreen

11 am - 1 pm
Talk:Maria Veie Sandvik, Rikke Lundgreen, Alex Murray Leslie, Timo Kaukolampi, Tuomas Toivonen and Thora Dolven Balke

Maaretta Jaukkuri Foundation is situated between mountains and the ocean in Lofoten, an archipelago within the arctic circle in Northern Norway. This event will reflect and discuss what characterizes listening and hearing, and how we can stimulate reflection on what constitutes meaningful sound and listening processes.

The Museum of Sound is nomadic and in flux and is rooted in the essence of sound and listening. Tommi Grönlund and Rikke Lundgreen created the initiative while preparing the exhibition "Mika Vainio 50Hz" at the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma in Helsinki, Autumn 2020.

The late Mika Vainio (1962-2017) had a habit of inviting friends to his home, to play them music recordings in silence, with full concentration. In the series of the listening rooms, the aim is to create a similar situation, an empty room full of sound.

How can music trigger an emotional response? Everyone has a relation to sound and it is often defined by subjective experience and memories. The listening room at Maaretta Jaukkuri Foundation has the intention to get back to listening as a focused and prioritized activity. With no distractions other than the view to an open horizon, listeners can create a narrative from their own connotations, and just experience sound. 

For the live event there will be a session based on the drum machine Roland TR-808, an instrument that is an institution in itself. 

Maaretta Jaukkuri Foundation (MJF) is non-profit foundation in the name of curator Maaretta Jaukkuri. Founded in 2014, it is made possible with donations from artists and generous support from Saastamoinen Foundation and Kone Foundation, Finland. MJFs programme is centered around the foundations building, which houses Maaretta Jaukkuris library, a sauna, simple work and living spaces in close proximity to nature. Here MJF houses an ongoing Fellows programme of visiting artists, curators and other practitioners across a range of fields, as well as a series of public events. 

Musician Timo Kaukolampi releases electronic music under various projects and has  made soundworks in collaboration with artists, television and film and for dance projects. His sound can be recognized by organic, soulful melodies and intense drones. 

Toumas Toivinen is an architect, producer, composer, and sonic artist , and produces a range of outputs in sound, such as installations either in architecture or nature. He uses composed text, slowly evolving atmospherics, deep pulsating rhythm drones, and experiments in technology, process and form

Alex Murray Leslie is an artist best- known for being a part of Chicks on Speed with artist Mel Logan. Their work is rooted in the feminist actions, combining art, sound, fashion, creating multidisciplinary performative experiences which have many forms. Their expressions have a unique position in between art, music and club culture. 

Maria Veie Sandvik is an editor, curator and gallerist for the Gallery Maria Veie, which now has a nomadic form. She also works as a critic for both music and art, and has a profound interest in electronic music. Her lived experience of sound is a outset for her contribution. 

Thora Dolven Balke is an artist, curator and producer working mainly with photography, video and sound in larger sculptural installations. Her multichannel works in sound combine voices and narratives with audiovisual landscapes made from field recordings and electronic music. 

Rikke Lundgreen is an artist and curator. Lundgreen works with a range of techniques such as sound, film, drawing and installation. A performative event is often a starting point for the installations. She also administers Mika Vainio's studio, archive, and collections of records and books, remaining in Oslo, where he lived with Lundgreen.

Tommi Grönlund is an artist and runs the record label Sähkö Recordings, which he started with Mika Vainio in 1993. His artistic practice in collaboration with Petteri Nisunen uses a variety of materials and technologies, from objects to light and sound. Often using electric currents, or simple gravitational forces to create quietly evocative and formally striking works.

MUSEUM OF SOUND at Maaretta Jaukkuri Foundation, Lofoten, Norway
 Listening Room / Live Concert / Talk 
 FRI/SAT 27/28 OCTOBER 2023 

Maaretta Jaukkuri Foundation presents the seminar Tacit Knowledge, hosted in collaboration with Lofoten International Art Festival LIAF 2022 at Arbeider’n, Kabelvåg, September 4, 2022 from 10 am - 4 pm.

With Alexander Eriksson Furunes, Markus Kåhre, Pia Lindman, Joar Nango, Laura Johanne Olsen, Matt Packer, Francesco Urbano Ragazzi and Kjersti Solbakken

Tacit Knowledge is MJFs second public seminar in a prospective series of public events that will be organized along with the Fellows programme. This year the seminar takes place during the opening weekend of LIAF 2022, all in the town of Kabelvåg.

The term tacit knowledge was launched by the British-Hungarian scientist, and later philosopher, Michael Polanyi (1891-1976) in his book “Personal Knowledge” from 1958. The common definition of tacit knowledge is that it is about traditions, inherited practices, implied values, skills, ideas, prejudgements, and experiences which cannot be expressed in words. It is intuitive and unarticulated knowledge that cannot be communicated, understood or used without a 'knowing subject'. Unlike the transfer of explicit knowledge, the transfer of tacit knowledge requires close interaction, shared understanding and trust. It prompts new thinking with regards to collecting, storing, sharing and documenting.

Tacit knowledge can be transferred through practice, connected with traditional forms of learning, based in shared work situations through actual working processes. This is the way tradition and personal knowledge can be shared. Lofoten is the backdrop for our seminar, and it is a place where tacit knowledge is important in supplementing explicit knowledge when it comes to creating, maintaining and growing opportunities for learning, cohabitation, work and survival. It is a place that prides itself on this kind of knowledge and the long traditions it has. At the same time, many young people have left to study, travel and work outside of the islands, only to return in recognition of possibilities to start unique and forward-thinking projects in a region that has gotten a lot of attention internationally in recent years. They refer to tacit knowledge as a strength, and are inspired to draw on this kind of knowledge to try to think out new strategies or working within culture, education, scientific research and preservation.

The social nature of knowing depends on the existence of social structures, each grounded in a particular tradition or set of traditions. In the very specific moment we are living through, there has been a natural focus on the tangible, immediate and intimate, to interhuman relations and connections.In the arts, as a professional field, tacit knowledge is crucial both in teaching art, making, as well as communicating with art. The spectator should have belief in art to take the leap of trust to use one’s imagination. Understanding the specific role of tacit knowledge can thus make it easier to communicate with contemporary art.

Acknowledging the importance of tacit knowledge this can increasingly democratize the sources we draw on to define the current moment and write history. As such, it is valuable to consider how this kind of knowledge within a community can be a carrier of history and tradition, whilst providing the tools to better face the future."

September 04, 2022 —At Arbeider’n, Kabelvåg

Seminar hosted in collaboration with Lofoten International Art Festival LIAF 2022
with Alexander Eriksson Furunes, Markus Kåhre, Pia Lindman, Joar Nango, Laura Johanne Olsen, Matt Packer, Francesco Urbano Ragazzi and Kjersti Solbakken

We all carry with us a story, a fundamental narrative; where we come from, where we’ve been and what we have done; the defining moments of our lives. Sharing these events is the act of storytelling, the process of structuring a narrative. As narrative is also discourse, it references the premise of the story as well as the account itself. A story can find many expressions, it can be yelled, whispered, sputtered, shouted, argued or demonstrated - it can be told through voice, moving images, objects, written word or a song just to mention some. It is always time-based, but time can be understood and represented in countless ways.

MJFs starting point is art, from here we address other fields of thinking. Similarly we want to approach the subject of narration and storytelling from several angles, seen through art, film, social research, literature, philosophy, politics and local history. We would like to combine a theoretical perspective with the personal, artistic and performative. This subject feels urgent and important in a media- and debate reality full of confusing facts with real political consequences. The seminar will contextualise this with people’s drive to share their stories, in the form of art, music and film but also through oral storytelling as a means to preserve and pass on local and family history, and as a way to understand each other across cultural divides.

With generous support by Fritt Ord, Arts Council Norway, Vestvågøy Kommune, Saastamoinen Foundation and KONE Foundation

Septemper 01, 2019 — Arbeider'n, Kabelvåg
Septemper 02, 2019 — MJF's building, Kvalnes

Moderated by Marit Adeleide Andreassen 
with Fadlabi, Matti Hyvärinen, Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen, Marianne Ulrichsen, Hilde Østby



Members of the Maaretta Jaukkuri Foundation’s Board, Thora Dolven Balke, Katya García-Antón, Gediminas Urbonas, Mari Jaukkuri, Francis McKee, Yoshiaki Nishino, Hilde Methi and Cecilia Jaukkuri, along with curator and professor Maaretta Jaukkuri, artist A K Dolven and Director Audhild Dahlstrøm, met in Kvalnes to initiate the Foundation’s mission and agenda.

Besides the Board’s main organisational duties, questions such as: “How can we expand our awareness and knowledge of the time we live in? How can we further strengthen art’s freedom to communicate honestly, aesthetically and ethically in this new and complex era?” were discussed in relation to the future of the Foundation’s remit.

The Board discussed MJF’s role and how MJF can play a part in providing space that gives freedom to think, to have a moment of calm in a place independent of commercial or political-institutional influence. It is repeated daily that we live in turbulent times and we also feel it. The challenge of facing the multi-layered problems of our time is something we all share. The future seems more uncertain now than it has in a long time, and questions about climate change, democracy, terrorism, capitalism and growing economic inequalities are discourses that are prevalent. The urgency of many of these issues is reflected in the place that surrounds MJF, a fragile landscape at the centre of discussions on energy and resource politics and climate protection. How we express these concerns and communicate them are vital issues in our time.

February 12–15, 2016
MJF’s Board meet in Kvalnes Lofoten

Tacit Knowledge

Tacit Knowledge

Stories Told And Re-Told

Stories Told And Re-Told

Board Meeting

Board Meeting