Artica Films at Nordover: 10th Anniversary Film Screening

5 Oct

As part of Artica Svalbard’s 10th anniversary celebrations, join us at Nordover Art Centre & Cinema for an afternoon of films by past Artica residents.

Bringing together works by Helene Sommer, Susan Schuppli and Sébastien Robert, the programme explores different ways of observing, listening to and understanding Svalbard — from the geological archives beneath our feet and the technological infrastructures transmitting signals across the Arctic, to the elusive sounds of the northern lights.

Each of the three works has grown from research undertaken during an Artica residency, demonstrating how an initial period spent in Svalbard can develop into longer-term artistic research, collaborations and new works.

The afternoon will also include the premiere of Artica’s new 10th anniversary short film, directed by Tom Warner, looking back at the people, projects and encounters that have shaped Artica since 2016.

Drop in for a film or stay for the whole programme.

When: Saturday 17 October, 12:00–15:00
Where: Nordover Art Centre & Cinema, Longyearbyen

The full screening programme runs for under two hours. You are welcome to drop in for an individual film or stay for the whole afternoon.

Free entry — everyone is welcome.

Programme

Helene Sommer — Underground Movements

2026 | 15:53 min

Underground Movements is a video essay exploring the mapping and archiving of the Earth’s interior and how we relate to the ground beneath our feet.

Taking the drill core — a cylindrical sample extracted from the Earth — as its starting point, the film considers these objects as both geological archives and evidence of our relationship with natural resources. Moving between science, science fiction, language and mythology, Sommer follows the drill core through sites including the national drill core archive in Løkken, the Store Norske drill core archive and Svalbard Museum.

The work developed following Sommer’s 2023 Artica residency, nominated by the Office for Contemporary Art Norway (OCA).

Susan Schuppli — [Climate] Signals from Svalbard

2024 | 27:34 min

Artist and researcher Susan Schuppli turns her attention to the technological infrastructures that have converged on Svalbard to transmit signals of another kind.

Radio towers, antenna arrays, satellite ground stations, radar installations, meteorological instruments and fibre-optic cables populate the landscape around Longyearbyen, forming an infrastructure through which electromagnetic pulses, sine waves and data streams are relayed into global information networks.

The work follows Schuppli’s 2022 Artica residency, supported by the Office for Contemporary Art Norway (OCA), and was also supported by the Toronto Biennial of Art.

Sébastien Robert — All But Silent

2026 | 26:08 min

In a moonlit valley in Svalbard, artist-researcher Sébastien Robert and a radio astronomer set up a network of antennas and microphones to investigate the sound phenomena that can occur during the northern lights.

Ice fractures the stillness; radio waves hum; the magnetic sky crackles. For centuries, Arctic communities have not only seen the northern lights but also heard them. Could there be a sonic world different from what Western science can explain?

Moving between an industrial harbour, an ice cave beneath a glacier and the local chapel, All But Silent brings together voices reflecting on encounters with a phenomenon that defies easy explanation. The film invites us to listen differently — to the whispers of the cosmos and our own resonance within it.

The project was initiated during Robert’s residency at Artica Svalbard in 2024.

Artica Svalbard — 10th Anniversary Film

Directed by Tom Warner

To mark ten years of Artica Svalbard, our new short film looks back at a decade of residencies, projects, conversations and encounters in Svalbard.

Featuring voices from across Artica’s history, the film reflects on what it means to spend time here, the role of artistic and cultural practice in the Arctic, and the relationships that have grown through Artica since 2016.

Charlotte Hetherington