SHHH! Stories of Abortion at the Women’s Museum Norway

Dec 24, 2020

In challenging times, women’s museums are resilient and responding…

In 2020 the Women’s Museum of Norway has been working on several projects: One is the documentation of our global common intangible heritage, through the exhibition project SHHH! Stories of Abortion.

Project group meeting of the physical exhibition “SHHH! Stories of abortion”

Project group meeting September 2020. Standing on left side: Sara Falkstad and Helene Karlsson from artist group OTALT, sitting in the middle: Mona Pedersen, director Anno museum Kongsvingerregionen, sitting on the right side of table, from the top: Gry Linderud, exhibition designer, Anno museum, and Thea Aarbakke, Women’s Museum, and standing to the right, Ellen Jacobsen, graphic designer.

Thanks’ to the help of several colleagues from the International Association of Women’s Museums we have collected stories of women’s experiences with abortion from several countries in the world.

To visualize this intangible history, we collaborate with OTALT, an artist duo from Sweden.

A 3-D model of the physical exhibition “SHHH! Stories of abortion”, made by the artist duo OTALT.

A 3-D model of the physical exhibition “SHHH! Stories of abortion”, made by the artist duo OTALT.

The exhibition, both in a physical and a digital version, is originally planned to open March 2021. We still hope to be able to do so, even if we feel very experienced in changing plans by now, due to the covid 19 pandemic. Like most other institutions we have postponed all big events to 2021, among these the celebration of our own 25th Anniversary.

Examples of colours and designs made for the introduction part of the exhibition, where IAWM will also be presented.

Examples of colours and designs made for the introduction part of the exhibition, where IAWM will also be presented.

Project group meeting September 2020. From the left: Thea Aarbakke from the Women’s Museum in Norway and Ellen Jacobsen, graphic designer.

Project group meeting September 2020. From the left: Thea Aarbakke from the Women’s Museum in Norway and Ellen Jacobsen, graphic designer.

Helene Karlson shows the 3-D model made by the artist group OTALT to graphic designer Ellen Jacobsen.

Helene Karlson shows the 3-D model made by the artist group OTALT to graphic designer Ellen Jacobsen.

#womensmuseumsalive

Latest News

Letter from Qarchak Prison from Nasrin Sotudeh

Earlier this month, IAWM made a statement about Nasrin Sotudeh and the oppression of women in Iran. Here you can read that full statement. To follow up on this situation, we wanted to publish Nasrin’s first letter after her arrest at the funeral of Armita Geravand...

read more

Statement on Oppression in Iran

IAWM’s statement on the incarceration of Nasrin Sotoudeh and others fighting oppression in Iran: The women and girls of Iran who are fighting against forced hijab are in danger of arrest, imprisonment violence and death. In September 2022, Mahsa Amini (22) died in...

read more

Gender Equality: Un-Gendering Memory And Museum Practices

We are delighted to invite you to the TRACTS workshop of WG2: Traces and Social Justice. Date: September 29-30, 2023 Venue: Slovene Ethnographic Museum, Metelkova ulica 2, 1000 Ljubljana Organizing committee:  Tina Palaić, Slovene Ethnographic Museum Polona Sitar,...

read more
Share This