Artist: Aya Kharboutli

Target Group: Young people and adults

Duration: 90 minutes

Would you like to contribute to a collective artwork exploring belonging, identity, and language?

Through linocut printmaking, participants create individual prints that become part of a larger collaborative artwork, bringing together different experiences, stories, and perspectives.

This workshop explores linocut printmaking and typography as artistic tools for reflecting on language, identity, and belonging.

Language is often experienced as something abstract, words we read, hear, and use in everyday life. In this workshop, participants engage with language as a visual and physical material. Through carving and printing, words are transformed into forms that can be touched, repeated, and assembled collectively.

The workshop begins by inviting participants to reflect on words they associate with identity, memory, home, or belonging. Each participant selects a word that feels meaningful to them. This may be a Norwegian word, a word from their mother tongue, or a word that reflects a personal experience.

Participants carve their chosen word into a linoleum block using the linocut technique, a traditional form of relief printmaking. Through this process, language shifts from something purely linguistic into a physical and visual form.

The individual prints are then brought together to create a collective artwork that highlights both shared experiences and differences. The final piece becomes a visual conversation about language, connection, and the many ways people relate to place, culture, and community.

No previous experience with printmaking is required.

If you had to choose one word that reflects your identity, memory, or sense of belonging, what would it be?