Podcast: Lotte Konow Lund and Linn Ullmann

In the tenth edition of the conversation series Kunst og litteratur, you'll hear Lotte Konow Lund in conversation with Linn Ullmann. Starting from the search for a 1900 tapestry by Frida Hansen, last seen at the home of an Italian countess, the conversation ranged widely across art, film, literature, and dance – from Pina Bausch, Chantal Akerman, and Ali Smith to Virginia Woolf, Vanessa Bell, and William James – and touched on writing in the in-between spaces, on doubt as a space of possibility, and much more.

Earlier this year, Linn Ullmann announced that over the coming years she will publish five books addressing different female artistic practices, each drawing on the parable of the five wise and five foolish virgins. The first book in the series – conceived as a blend of travel writing, diary, art history, and memoir – will follow Ullmann's search for a tapestry depicting the virgin motif that has been missing for over a hundred years. The artist Frida Hansen (1855–1931) created the work for the 1900 World's Fair, where it won a gold medal, before it was sold to an Italian countess. The tapestry can be traced to the countess's villa in Rome four years later, after which it vanished without a trace. So far, the search has taken Ullmann to Italy, France, Germany, Finland, and the United Kingdom. What does time do to an image, a memory, or a repetition – and what might one find along the way when searching for something one doesn't quite know how to name? Linn Ullmann is the final guest of the season in Kunst og litteratur, in conversation with Lotte Konow Lund about her relationship to images in literature, film, dance, theatre, and visual art. Key references for the conversation include Virginia Woolf, Vanessa Bell, Ali Smith, Edvard Munch, Chantal Akerman, Agnès Varda, Pina Bausch, Lena Cronqvist, Elizabeth Hall, and Frida Hansen.

Linn Ullmann (b. 1966) has a background as a journalist and literary critic and is today one of Scandinavia's leading authors. She made her debut in 1998 with the novel Før du sovner and has published seven novels in total. She has received numerous awards, including Gullpennen for her journalistic work and Amalie Skram-prisen, Doblougprisen, and Aschehougprisen for her body of work as a whole. The novels De urolige (2015) and Jente, 1983 (2021) form the first two volumes of a planned trilogy, and she was nominated for the Nordic Council's Literature Prize for both. Linn Ullmann's novels are published across much of Europe and in the United States.

Lotte Konow Lund (b. 1967) is a visual artist and professor at KHiO. Konow Lund has published the books Om kunst – 25 kunstnersamtaler (Forlaget Oktober, 2021) and Dagbøkene 2014–2016 (Teknisk Industri, 2016), and in 2025 presented the major solo exhibition Det hun sa at Kode in Bergen.

Kunst og litteratur is part of Oslo Kunstforening's ongoing programme Tidsrommet, with activities taking place on the ground floor of our premises. Tidsrommet is supported by the City of Oslo and Sparebankstiftelsen DNB.

This episode features a live recording from Oslo Kunstforening, 4 June 2026. See reference images below.

• Frida Hansen, De fem kloge og de fem daarlige jomfruer, vevkartong (1900). Photo: Nasjonalmuseet / Andreas Harvik
• The Fifth Foolish Virgin by Martin Schongauer (ca. 1475). Photo: The Ashmolean's Print Room, Oxford
• Agnès Varda. Photo: Unknown
• Chantal Akerman. Photo: Unknown
• Still from Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975), dir. Chantal Akerman. Delphine Seyrig in the lead role.
• Pina Bausch. Photo from www.pinabausch.org
• Detail from Pina Bausch Walzer (1982), Tanztheater Wuppertal. Photo: Unknown
• Tilda Swinton, La Voz Humana, Pedro Almodóvar (2020). Photo: Unknown
• Detail from Frida Hansen, De fem kloge og de fem daarlige jomfruer, vevkartong (1900) and portrait of Liv Ullmann. Photo: Private
• Lena Cronqvist, Den Autistiska (1984). Photo from the book Målningar 1964–1994.
• Edvard Munch, Dark Spruce Forest (1899). Photo from the book "So in the Spruce Forest" by Ali Smith (MUNCH / 2025)
• Virginia Woolf by Vanessa Bell (1912). Photo: National Portrait Gallery, London
• Embroidered nutmeg by Elizabeth Hall (1681–1685). Photo: Rebecca Scott / Witney Antiques