Fotogalleriet invites aspiring art writers to apply for a two-day critical writing workshop led by art critic Nicholas Norton. The workshop will take place within Saskia Holmkvist’s exhibition KLub, and will use her method of back translation as a starting point.
The term back translation comes from the field of professional translation. It describes a process in which a text is translated into another language and then translated back by someone else to check for shifts, ambiguities, or meanings that may have been lost.
In Holmkvist’s artistic practice—spanning moving image, text, and installation—back translation becomes a tool to revisit and reshape complex political histories and contested narratives. Her work activates history through dialogue, avoiding linear storytelling in favor of fragments, circular movements, and recombinations of time. By listening, relearning, and responding to past events tied to specific places, Holmkvist engages with themes of historical erasure, fugitive materials, and collective memory.
As part of the workshop, participants will engage with the exhibition, read related texts, and consider back translation both as a writing strategy and as an artistic method that can be engaged with critically.
Workshop participants will learn how to:
- Summarise, analyse, question, and evaluate written texts and exhibitions
- Argue and support a position through critical writing
- Work through different stages of the writing process
- Identify characteristics of effective art writing
- Develop a critical text while closely engaging with Holmkvist’s exhibition
Dates: Successful participants will be notified by 7 November 2025.
Duration: The workshop will take place over two days within Holmqvist’s exhibition
Location: Fotogalleriet, in Holmkvist’s exhibition KLub
Participants: Maximum 8 participants
Language: English
To apply, please submit:
- A current CV
- A short paragraph describing why you would like to participate in the workshop
Application deadline: 31 October 2025
Send application to: application@fotogalleriet.no
Selection process: Participants will be selected by Nkule Mabaso, Director of Fotogalleriet and Nicholas Norton based on submitted materials. We aim to create a diverse group of writers at different stages of their practice.
Nicholas Norton is an art critic, writer and editor based in Oslo with a background in art history. He is a regular contributor to the daily newspaper Klassekampen and the journal Kunstkritikk, and has written for publications such as Artforum, Billedkunst, Contemporary Art Stavanger, Frieze, Neural, The Vessel, Norsk Kunstårbok and Wuxia.
Saskia Holmkvist is an artist based in Stockholm. She is also a teacher and, since 2014, professor in contemporary art at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts. For over two decades Holmkvist has worked using video, performance, and text alongside new approaches to relational work and oral archives that encompass critical listening, speculation and performative translation. She has a particular focus on contemporary history, translation processes, and ethics.
KLub runs from 14 November 2025 to 22 February 2026 at Fotogalleriet.
