The meeting point between artists Niels Munk Plum and Damien Ajavon in Looming/Looping is their shared interest in highlighting the physical labour of their artistic work, and resistance to categorisation. Trained respectively in “fine arts” and “arts and craft”, Plum and Ajavon simultaneously entangle and unfix preconceptions of what art is, and invite active spectatorship. Together, they seek to confront notions of “craftsmanship” as it relates to the concept of “expertise”, which create and maintain hierarchies within artistic labour.
Applying visual and physical gestures, Looming/Looping Avajon and Plum’s distinctive practices and their artistic dialogue. In totality, the exhibition encourages its visitors to see themselves as active bodies and subjects: spiraling, shifting, looming, and looping.
Created in dialogue with curator Håkon Lillegraven, the exhibition seeks to resist the binary categorisation and institutionalisation of “queer” and vocational practices, and to highlight on the embodied and material aspects of both artists’ work. The exhibition invites visitors to engage with what it means to perceive artistic praxis and the work through the construction and dissemination of “art”, and reflect on the categories and stories of provenance which we use to tether ourselves to the world.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The exhibition Looming/Looping at BO has been realized with support from the Arts Council Norway, Oslo Municipality, and the Danish Arts Foundation.
The artists and curator also want to extend their thanks to Gudbrandsdalens Uldvarefabrik for their generous donation of materials to Damien Ajavon’s works.
In the fall of 2025, a continuation of the artistic dialogue between Ajavon and Munk Plum will be presented at the exhibition space Collega and curator Jari Malta in Copenhagen, Denmark, as part of their programme, dedicated to supporting new forms of experimentation and collaboration.
Damien Ajavon (b.1990, they/them) is an Afropean textile artist originally from Paris, now living and working between Noresund and Skien. As a dedicated artist, their creations are a testament to personal exploration and a passion for sharing stories through the transformative power and mutable qualities of textiles. At the core is a desire to merge cultures to create something new and beautiful. Rooted in their heritage, drawing on African and Western cultures and queer communities, Ajavon’s practice with textiles serves as a medium for culturally representative pieces that merge generations of African craftsmanship with diasporic and transoceanic perspectives. Their work explores the tactile manipulation of textile fibers, with a creative process deeply influenced by the interplay of visual and sensory experiences.
With an MA in Textile from the National Academy of the Arts in Oslo, Ajavon’s work has in recent years been featured in group and solo exhibitions as well as artist residencies across North America, Europe, and Africa, amongst them Oslo Kunstforening (Oslo), Spriten Kunsthall (Skien), AiR Green (Noresund), Fotogalleriet (Oslo), Future Fair (New York), and MK&G messe (Munich). Their work is part of the public collections of the City of Oslo and KpA – Kunst på arbeidsplassen (“Art in the workplace”), solidifying their contribution to contemporary textile art in Norway.
Niels Munk Plum (b. 1992, he/him) is a Danish visual artist currently living and working in Copenhagen. Staging the body and language he works performatively with discourses around participation in and horizontalization of art. Plum interrogates the concept of artistic and institutional “expertise” through his performative and material practice, and has staged ambitious multi-medial interventions in museums, art academies, public, and artist-run spaces.
With a BFA from Oslo National Academy of Fine Art (2020), he was the recipient of the FKDS studio grant at Kunstnernes Hus in Oslo 2020-21, and obtained his MFA from Malmö Art Academy in 2022. His graduate exhibition RIGID ROOM subsequently traveled to Stockholm to be a part of Konstväxlingar, an ongoing presentation of art in public space in a city metro station. In 2022, he was also one of three artists to present a new performance commission as part of the opening exhibition Jeg kaller det kunst at the National Museum in Oslo in 2022, with the work () New Loop (). Niels has also staged works and performances at institutions such as Lars (Lisboa), Podium (Oslo), Kunstnernes Hus (Oslo), Runde Taarn (Copenhagen), and produced several artist zines and publications. In autumn 2024, he was one of four residents at the acclaimed Art Hub Copenhagen residency programme.
Håkon Lillegraven (b.1992, he/him) is a curator, art mediator and writer currentlig living and working in Oslo, Norway. He holds a special interest in queer, norm-critical, and performative practices, and artistic practitioners and stakeholders within these, which most often manifests through new performance production and public programming. In 2023 he was a curatorial resident at ISCP – International Studio and Curatorial Program in New York City. The following year, in 2024, Lillegraven curated the graduate exhibition The World Is A Knot in Motion by the MA Arts and Crafts and MA Art and Public Space programmes at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts. Collaboratively, Håkon has co-founded platforms such as Ergi, and has curated exhibitions and public programmes for museums, medium-sized institutions, and artist-run spaces. He is currently Curator of Education and Public Programmes at the National Museum (Nasjonalmuseet) in Oslo, Norway.
