Visitor- and box address:
Lade Allé 60, 7041 Trondheim

Phone: 73 87 02 80
Fax: 73 87 02 81
E-mail: firmapost@ringve.no

May 18th - October 31st, 2010

"Ja takk, begge deler! Music and national minorities" is an exhibition profiling the music and stories of Norway's five national minorities (Jews, Kvens, Rom, Romani and Forest Finns). Minority voices combine with music videos, photos, objects and text in order to challenge our presuppositions on what it means to belong to a minority - or a majority.

"Ja takk, begge deler! Music and national minorities" lets visitors meet artists who refuse to be placed in standard categories, artists who say "Yes, both!" when they explore musical worlds in their own ways. Jewish rap, Forest-Finn blues and Kven-pop are present, but also primordial rituals and traditional musical styles that have been handed down from generation to generation. The material collected varies from fireside songs at campgrounds to the stages of international festivals.

A national minority is a group of people with ethnic, linguistic, cultural and/or religious characteristics, and which has long lasting ties to the country of residence. After ratification of the Council of Europe's Framework Convention for the protection of National Minorities in 1999, Norway has obligated itself to secure preconditions for the preservation and further development of the national minorities cultural distinctiveness. The Norwegian parliamentary white paper 15/2000 says that "artists with minority backgrounds should be evaluated as artists on equal grounds with other artists", but also says that an artist’s special background can be an important part of a basis for artistic activity. As rock musician Åge Aleksandersen (of Romani ancestry) shows, it is far from mandated that artistic expression always needs to be tied to ones ancestry or background - but there still remain many cases where such ties can be important.

"Ja takk, begge deler! Music and national minorities" has been developed by Ringve Museum, in collaboration with a wide range of organizations and individuals. The exhibition marks the traditions and creative development of national minorities in Norway - diverse cultural expressions which prove themselves strong today, despite the repression and discrimination of earlier periods.

 The exhibition is shown in the "Wessel" building during museum opening hours.