FOLK – From racial types to DNA sequences

People have been grouped based on their physical characteristics for hundreds of years. These groupings have led us to assume what people can and should do, and how they behave. Countless studies have been done; scientific investigations of people's evolution and variation, origins and histories. The exhibition FOLK invites you to explore cases from historical race science and contemporary genetic research on human biological diversity.

In FOLK you can investigate the interactions between science, society, and culture. How have studies on human diversity been affected by new technologies, different visions of health and medicine, political/economic inequalities and racial ideologies? What kind of consequences can this research have for society and the lives of individuals?

You are welcome to experience the exhibition on your own, or to participate in one of our thematic tours. It is also possible to book a group tour or school visit through the services for schools at Norsk Teknisk Museum. Welcome!

Exhibition period: 21 March 2018 – 15 December 2019.

Activities and thematic tours

School and group bookings

FOLK finissage: Vi er norden

Final event:

The exhibition ended with a powerful, interactive performance on decolonization, which brought to the forth new questions about how our colonial histories affect our lives today.

More about the performance: This performance lecture at Teknisk museum is the culmination of a long exploration process. The well-known Norwegian-Gambian performing artist Camara Lundestad Joof has colaborated with the Danish choreographer Ingrid Tranum Velazques, the Greenlandic poet Aka Niviâna and the Finish-Sami skulptor Stina Aletta Aikio to develop the project.

Date/time: Saturday 14 December 2019, 16-18.
See the event on Facebook (in Norwegian)

Projecting guilt

Event during the last week of the exhibition:

Projecting guilt was a sculptural installation which developed during six days by the artist Aksel Ree.

This work combines sculptural, spatial and performative aspects, to discuss and explore thoughts on the projection of guilt. In connection with the FOLK exhibition, the work explores the systematic oppression of minorities and populations, supported and legitimized by politically and ideologically charged "science" with political and ideological, as well as how traces of such actions can be carried on in the present. The motivation behind this work is to create a framework that gives the visitors the freedom to interpret and reflect on their role inside the exhibition, and how this in turn can lead to new meanings.

Date: 10–15 December 2019
See the event on Facebook (in Norwegian)

International prize to the FOLK exhibition

Museum exhibitions from across the globe have been recognised by the BSHS Great Exhibitions Prize 2018, and FOLK took home the prize in the category of large exhibitions.

The exhibition

Collecting and exhibiting

Explore how people and cultures have been stereotyped, romanticized, and evaluated, in the past, present, and future.

Scientific racism

Examine how science and politics have been entangled in race from the time of eugenics in the early 20th century to the Nazi policies of racial purity and genocide.

Measuring and classifying

Discover the people, institutions, scientific theories, and instruments used to measure and classify human bodies in the past.

Scientific anti-racism

Look into the efforts of scientists, activists, and politicians to combat racism after the 1940s.

Including and excluding

Find out how racial research fostered the categorization of people into "us" and "them.

DNA-typing

Gain insight  into contemporary understandings of human biological diversity  and join the discussion on the possibilities and challenges  of  such research.

Read & watch