In 2020, the Artists’ Association of Lapland (AAL) celebrates 30 years with an international exhibition involving a dialogue between an invited group of Nordic artists and a selection of artists from the AAL. The project, held at Kakslauttanen Art Gallery under the name of ‘Wiping the Ice-Cream Off Your Face - 30 Nordic Artists’ Perspectives on De-Arcticfication to Celebrate 30 Years of the Artists’ Association of Lapland’ is jointly put together by Misha del Val (FI) & Andreas Hoffmann (NO/Greenland - Arctic Culture Lab). Invited artists include Tanya Busse (Norway), Tomas Colbengtson (Sweden), Julie Edel Hardenberg (Grønland), Mariane Lyngs ø and Pia Light (Denmark), Amanda Riffo (Iceland), Randi Samsonsen (Faroe Islands), Peter Winquist (Åland) and the collective Friday Milk (Russia).
The ‘Wiping the Ice-Cream Off Your Face’ project aims at raising issues around contemporary Arctic culture (and its place within Nordic culture), create meaningful connections between artists in the Nordic area, and reconsider notions about the North outside the mainstream, conventional way of thinking, in a process we are calling ‘De-arctification’.
“Many -below and above the arctic circle- have an interest in seeing the Arctic just as a big ball of ice-cream: strawberry pink of polar skies and creamy white of snowy forests. This is a phenomenon, known as ‘Arctification’, by which partial and simplistic views and ideas are fabricated, imposed and sustained on the Arctic, to suit political and economical agendas (take, for instance, the winter tourism industry) and/or a widespread naive sentimentality. The peoples living in the region, its rich traditions and culture, get reduced, through this oversimplification, as an exotic other, a barren wintery destination, or a geopolitical periphery -in ways that remind us too much to the postulates that Edward W. Said discussed in his work Orientalism.”
The ‘De-arcticfication’ forces are directed towards confronting and dispelling inaccurate notions about the region; promoting perspectives on the multi-layered complexity of the North, and broadening any provisional definition about an Arctic identity. Artists are invited and encouraged to reflect on the reality, create up-to-date understandings, and share perspectives on the Nordic Arctic as a place to live, work and raise our children, culturally able and robust.
De-Arcticfication, also means, by extension, a break away from the conventional shared ideas about any given matter, that limit our perceptions and our critical sense.
The project is funded by the Nordic Culture Fund.
Image: Arttu Nieminen, Avaaruskaipuu, 2020
The ‘Wiping the Ice-Cream Off Your Face’ project aims at raising issues around contemporary Arctic culture (and its place within Nordic culture), create meaningful connections between artists in the Nordic area, and reconsider notions about the North outside the mainstream, conventional way of thinking, in a process we are calling ‘De-arctification’.
“Many -below and above the arctic circle- have an interest in seeing the Arctic just as a big ball of ice-cream: strawberry pink of polar skies and creamy white of snowy forests. This is a phenomenon, known as ‘Arctification’, by which partial and simplistic views and ideas are fabricated, imposed and sustained on the Arctic, to suit political and economical agendas (take, for instance, the winter tourism industry) and/or a widespread naive sentimentality. The peoples living in the region, its rich traditions and culture, get reduced, through this oversimplification, as an exotic other, a barren wintery destination, or a geopolitical periphery -in ways that remind us too much to the postulates that Edward W. Said discussed in his work Orientalism.”
The ‘De-arcticfication’ forces are directed towards confronting and dispelling inaccurate notions about the region; promoting perspectives on the multi-layered complexity of the North, and broadening any provisional definition about an Arctic identity. Artists are invited and encouraged to reflect on the reality, create up-to-date understandings, and share perspectives on the Nordic Arctic as a place to live, work and raise our children, culturally able and robust.
De-Arcticfication, also means, by extension, a break away from the conventional shared ideas about any given matter, that limit our perceptions and our critical sense.
The project is funded by the Nordic Culture Fund.
Image: Arttu Nieminen, Avaaruskaipuu, 2020