Hannah Ryggen Triennale:
 Mater

Organised by Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum (NKIM), holder of the largest collection anywhere of Hannah Ryggen’s tapestries, the triennial will be hosted by various institutions throughout the city. This creates the opportunity for a broad examination of a new theme, selected every three years.

The term Mater, Latin for ‘mother’ and also the origin of words such as ‘material’ and ‘materiality’, is the common thread of the 2025 Hannah Ryggen Triennale. The theme is explored in the exhibitions on the one hand as a gender-specific, biological and personal question, on the other under more general aspects of creativity.

The fourth Hannah Ryggen Triennale thus presents contemporary positions that engage with the role of women and mothers as well as those that regard materiality from an ecological perspective or that search for traces relating to the foremothers of textile traditions in order to explore and understand their individual and cultural identity. One example is Olga de Amaral, who shows in her 1988 work Alquimia Roja, which references pre-Columbian folk art, that the plundering by European conquerors always also represented an attack on the notions that the respective indigenous cultures had about their origins.

The female artists at the triennial make explicit reference to Hannah Ryggen’s works over and again – for example, the work by Ann Cathrin November Høibo inspired by the famous Mother’s Heart carpet. The hand motif that frequently recurs refers, in turn, to the most important tool of all used in artistic work and can be understood as a symbol not only of welfare, understanding or support but also of the will to fight for women’s rights, the fair distribution of resources and the sustainable preservation of Mother Earth.

All exhibitions are presented in text and image in the triennial’s catalogue – a riveting compendium on the multiplicity of artistic approaches to central questions of our time.