Cultural engagement - contact or contract?

29 June 2007, Harstad, Festspillene i Nord-Norge

YVETTE BRACKMAN (Copenhagen) began her project «The Catalyst» in Lovozero on the Kola peninsula during spring 2006. She initiated contact between local craftspersons in Lovozero and the spanish shoe company Camper. She chose to establish a rapport between the people of Mallorca and Kola because the two have a sort of common fate. What is the result of such a contact – for Camper, for the local population in Lovozero and for the artist?

GEIR TORE HOLM and SØSSA JØRGENSEN (Tromsø/ Oslo), along with KAMIN LERTCHAIPRASERT and RIRKRIT TIRAVANIJA (Thailand), are the artists behind Sørfinnset School/the nord land in Gildeskål. This long-term dialogue was initiated as a part of a cultural exchange under the auspices of Nordland county, but it has acquired an unending perspective. It now encompasses both the activity at the abandoned Sørfinnset school and the building of the nord land, an infrastructure of buildings associated with The forgotten city: Jan Häfström’s contribution to Artscape Nordland. A dome-shaped Sami dwelling stands ready to accommodate guests; a Thai house will be completed in July this year, a tent sauna named hikki by per Enoksson serves as a bath and an outdoor kitchen and biotoilet are in planning.