We are very pleased to share a new printed version of the Artica Writings 2022 essay commissions, a collaboration with LPO Arkitekter and UiT - The Arctic University of Norway, Academy of Arts, landscape architecture programme.

This dark season we take inspiration from an age-old form of public event the Lantern Lecture – a form of diversion and education from the 1870s through the early 1900s. The magic lantern illustrated scientific lectures, entertainment, current events discussion, political campaigns, missionary fundraising, and humanitarian causes.

For nearly 30 years, we have been following collared Svalbard reindeer, collecting more than their poop. We have been seeing where they go (with GPS-collars), how well they survive, and the number of calves they raise. We’ve monitored what parasites they carry, how heavy they are each spring, and how that changes with shifting conditions of Svalbard.

We are thrilled to announce that the second NAARCA writing commission has been awarded to Hanna Ellen Guttorm. Hanna is a senior researcher at the University of Helsinki focusing on Indigenous Studies and is a member of Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Sciences. She is also an Associate Professor in Sámi Teacher Education at the Sámi University of Applied Sciences in Guovdageaidnu. 

A warm welcome to artist and researcher Ruth Maclennan. Ruth is based in London and northern Scotland. Her art practice includes films, video installations, photographs, writing, drawing and interdisciplinary and collaborative research projects.

We are so pleased to welcome Nicole Rafiki to Artica and Longyearbyen. Rafiki is an interdisciplinary artist whose work moves between photography, bead work, textiles, text, and the use of memorial objects old and new.

What are young people’s views on the climate crisis? And how can artists, and art institutions, help to amplify their voices?
In episode 5, Emma Henderson – Cove Park’s Curator of Engagement – introduces us to both the residency and the region, and to NAARCA’s pedagogy work.

Are you a member of NFFO and have a project related to the Arctic or the northern regions? Do you want to get inspiration for new projects? Do you translate Icelandic, Greenlandic, Danish, Sami, Swedish or Gaelic non-fiction? Or perhaps you need a writing stay in completely new surroundings in 2024?

Nikhil Vettukattil is an artist and writer based in Oslo. While in residence at Artica, Nikhil will develop new work that incorporates research into food and diet, specifically in relation to the ‘Nordic diet’ and the influence of imported and exported food.

In this bonus episode, Glasgow-based Gaelic writer Mairi Macleod reads her short story, Seasickness/Cur na Mara. In 2023, Mairi was commissioned by NAARCA to create a short piece of fiction in both Scots Gaelic and English, and was also granted an 8-week residency at Saari Residence in Finland, where she wrote Seasickness.

We are very pleased to share the first essay of Artica Writings 2023: Mushrooms in the Ice Desert: A Mycological-Culinary Journey to Svalbard by Reidun Braathen and Even W. Hanssen (Translated from Norwegian by Olivia Lasky)

Through video, text and installation she questions the way we understand and relate to our surroundings and its history, particularly in regard to the premises and politics of the sciences.

Last summer we welcomed visual artist Inma Herrera to the Artica residency. In this new film she shares her reflections on the residency experience, her practice and the meditative process of making. 

We are so pleased to welcome Grace Ndiritu, a British-Kenyan artist based in London whose artworks are concerned with the transformation of our contemporary world.

This week we are pleased to share Danish artist Rikke Luther’s Residents Recommend text. Luther is a GRASS Fellow at the GRASS Fellow Programme, Uppsala Universitet / Campus Gotland and Baltic Art Center (2022-2024) and is currently conducting field studies for the research project: More Mud. The project is commissioned by Art Hub and Nordic Alliance of Artists’ Residencies on Climate Action (NAARCA).

Expressions of interest are now open via our key partner OCA, who have been collaborating with Artica since 2016, nominating up to three artists a year for a funded residency and supporting the residents curatorially during their stay.

Read the new Residents Recommend list by Oslo based artist Yamile Calderón, who shares some of the books, music and experiences she’s had so far during her stay at Artica including seeing Patti Smith in concert!

We are very pleased to welcome our sixth resident of 2023 Yamile Calderón, an artist born in Colombia, based in Oslo. Calderón’s work is inspired by memories from her childhood and personal stories. By approaching the documentary genre from a subjective perspective, she explores visual and narrative strategies and the interpretation of reality.

This month we are very pleased to welcome Rikke Luther a Danish artist based in Copenhagen. Over the course of two years (2022-24), Rikke will embark on a research project entitled More Mud which will include residencies at Baltic Art Center (Sweden), Skaftfell Art Center (Iceland), Artica Svalbard (Norway) and research trips to Finland, and Greenland.

What role can, and should, artists play in an age of the climate crisis? What opportunities do artists have in this context, and what – if any – are their responsibilities?