How can I describe the Nordic region from an Arctic perspective? The very choice of words is both inclusive and yet exclusive. Is there a tension here? Or some specific expectation? Should I be focusing on an “Arcticness” of the story? And what would that look like?

The Arctic is obviously attractive. You are on the top. From here you can see into eternity. You view everything from the roof, you adopt the view of a birds perspective. The place beyond the “borders of the unknown world” – the Ultima Thule mentioned in medieval geographies. From here you can let your thoughts fly. You can enter illusory realities and re-enter the real illusions.

For me, it is a question of how I can take part in my surroundings. For the time-being, I sit on the staircase outside my house every night, watching the sun from my vantage point. The sun is touching the mountain generously, never hiding behind it, moving above the silent waters, rising a little to climb the next. I am listening to the monotonous drone of the engines of Russian trawlers, accompanied by bird calls.

One night – it is the very day that the birch trees sprout their leaves and human bodies are preparing for summer – that same night it starts to snow. I see white snowflakes covering all of the green. I know that, when I wake up in the morning, the white will all be gone again. The winter and the cold seem to be so powerful and dominant. Now the soil is too warm for snow.

8 viewpoints

Acknowledgements

On behalf of Pikene på Broen, I would like to thank the artists who have shared their artworks and viewpoints for this presentation: Mark Roberts, Yvette Brackman, Geir Tore Holm, Amund Sjølie Sveen, and Kristin Taarnesvik.

Thanks to the artists who took part in the Borders workshop, whose snapshots from this area I have used.

Thanks to Honna Havas, East Sàmi Museum, Zoya Nosova and other friends who keep sharing thoughts and knowledge, and people I do not know who are posting on Wikipedia. Thanks to my friend from the South (who did not say exactly what is written) and to Tasha (who is semi-real).

Thanks to Angela Plohman and the LabforCulture team for such a great collaboration and for providing this great tool for sharing arts and culture.

Note on images

Unless otherwise mentioned, the images are (c) Pikene på Broen/artists. The images were collected after a journey and a Cafe organised by Pikene på Broen together with ten artists, in the period 27 August - 8 September 2004. These images are from the areas Sevettijervi (FIN), Neiden, Kirkenes (NO), Pechenga, Murmansk (RUS). The images were taken by some of the participants: Anne Lise Stenseth, Kristin Tårnesvik, Helena Wikstrøm, Oskar Østergren and Morten Torgersrud.