Welcome Back: Nastassja Simensky Returns to Longyearbyen

This September, Artica Svalbard is delighted to welcome back artist Nastassja Simensky, who returns to Longyearbyen to continue work on her developing project Dust, Static and Feedback Loops. The project takes the form of a radio play and moving-image work that investigates Svalbard’s atmospheric infrastructure and the long-term legacies of environmental toxicity.

Simensky’s practice frequently explores how global energy regimes and extractive processes leave uneven impacts on particular geographies. Fieldwork is central to her approach, and she often collaborates with both artists and non-artists to create authored and co-authored works that span live performance, sound, text, amateur radio, moving image, and installation.

This is Simensky’s third visit to Longyearbyen, following her 2024 residency with Artica Svalbard, which was supported through a nomination by the Office for Contemporary Art Norway (OCA). During that residency she began to develop new strands of research that continue to unfold and deepen with each return.

We look forward to following the next chapter of Dust, Static and Feedback Loops as it evolves here in Svalbard, and to sharing more about the project as it develops.

Nastassja Simensky’s residency is generously supported by Arts Council England.