Edward Clydesdale Thomson is a Scottish/Danish artist based in Rotterdam. Together with Priscila Fernandes he is head of BEAR at ArtEZ. Land is a topic that keeps returning in his work. For Thomson land is a narrative that can talk about all kind of things in concrete political to more romantic ideas of some aesthetic values or social values. For him it is a carrier through which he can press some particular topics.
The work Thomson did in Sweden looked at the societal relation to land from cultural, sociological, ideological and aesthetic perspectives. This period of work and research started during an extended stay in Stockholm when his attention turned to the Swedish forests. Commonly cast in the double-natured role of exploitable resource and cherished cultural symbol, the forest holds a central position within Swedish society. It is, however, seldom discussed as an aesthetic expression of a particular ideology.
This interview is part of the LAND project, about climate breakdown, property, territory and colonialism and how these things relate to each other. Can we understand how we got into the current precarious situation? What does "ownership" mean for our relationship with each other and the land?
Video made by Irene Constandse and Kees Veling, commissioned by ArtEZ studium generale.
