Britta Marakatt-Labba
Britta Marakatt-Labba, Embracing in the dark - Magically, 2022. Exhibition view at Sala Trenker, Ortisei. Commissioned by Biennale Gherdëina ∞. Ph. Tiberio Sorvillo
Britta Marakatt-Labba grew up in a family of reindeer herders in Northern Sweden, in one of the northernmost regions of the world and home to the Sámi indigenous communities. She was part of the Sámi Artists’ Group (1978–83). In 2014, she received an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Arts at Umeå University. Mostly working with embroidery, Marakatt-Labba creates landscapes and miniature worlds that portray the rituals, struggles and daily life of the people of the North, weaving together the environmental, geopolitical and mythological histories of Sami culture. People, animals and divinities are main characters in her scenes, alongside the grand nature, the winter snow of the Boreal landscapes and the urban configurations of present-time human agglomerations and their politics. Her famous embroidery Historja (2003–07), a 23,5 meter epic of the Sámi people, was presented in documenta 14 and is permanently exhibited at the University of Tromsø.
The four embroideries Magically, The stars show the way, In dialogue and Embracing in the dark (all 2022) portray landscapes that have been refracted through an orb or reflected in an eye, suggesting the parabolic projections used to create two-dimensional maps. Within the landscape delineated by their borders are images of animals, forests, stars, and figures wearing red ladjogáhpir, a particular Sami woman’s hat that is topped by a curved wooden horn covered with embroidered fabric.
Britta Marakatt-Labba, The stars show the way, 2022. Commissioned by Biennale Gherdëina ∞. Ph. Tiberio Sorvillo
Britta Marakatt-Labba, In dialog, 2022. Commissioned by Biennale Gherdëina ∞. Ph. Tiberio Sorvillo
Britta Marakatt-Labba
Britta Marakatt-Labba, Embracing in the dark - Magically, 2022. Exhibition view at Sala Trenker, Ortisei. Commissioned by Biennale Gherdëina ∞. Ph. Tiberio Sorvillo
Britta Marakatt-Labba grew up in a family of reindeer herders in Northern Sweden, in one of the northernmost regions of the world and home to the Sámi indigenous communities. She was part of the Sámi Artists’ Group (1978–83). In 2014, she received an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Arts at Umeå University. Mostly working with embroidery, Marakatt-Labba creates landscapes and miniature worlds that portray the rituals, struggles and daily life of the people of the North, weaving together the environmental, geopolitical and mythological histories of Sami culture. People, animals and divinities are main characters in her scenes, alongside the grand nature, the winter snow of the Boreal landscapes and the urban configurations of present-time human agglomerations and their politics. Her famous embroidery Historja (2003–07), a 23,5 meter epic of the Sámi people, was presented in documenta 14 and is permanently exhibited at the University of Tromsø.
The four embroideries Magically, The stars show the way, In dialogue and Embracing in the dark (all 2022) portray landscapes that have been refracted through an orb or reflected in an eye, suggesting the parabolic projections used to create two-dimensional maps. Within the landscape delineated by their borders are images of animals, forests, stars, and figures wearing red ladjogáhpir, a particular Sami woman’s hat that is topped by a curved wooden horn covered with embroidered fabric.
Britta Marakatt-Labba, The stars show the way, 2022. Commissioned by Biennale Gherdëina ∞. Ph. Tiberio Sorvillo
Britta Marakatt-Labba, In dialog, 2022. Commissioned by Biennale Gherdëina ∞. Ph. Tiberio Sorvillo