Young Arctic Artists 2021 exhibition promotes emerging contemporary art from northern areas.
Exhibition will take place in Gallery Napa, Mustanapa and surrounding city space (Rovaniemi, Finland) 4.9.2021 – 28.9.2021. Additional second exhibition will be arranged in Tromsø, Norway, at late autumn 2021.
Under thematic umbrella of FIGHT / KAMPPAILU, we now invite proposals for works and projects for the 4th edition of Young Arctic Artists.
Seeing the people of the Arctic and Northern Fennoscandia through dichotomy of indigenous peoples and national majorities doesn’t describe the whole situation aptly. There are groups of people who don’t belong to the national majorities but are not considered indigenous either. There is a clear need for a self generated Arctic culture and with the Young Arctic Artists 2021 we want to raise the diversity of Arctic voices.
From the perspective of a minority you are often pushed towards fighting if you want your tradition / language / culture to live and envolve. At the same time you are punished for fighting, directly by majorities not accepting conflict (conflict towards the majority or conflicts inside the minority itself). Or indirectly by it not being sustainable to stay in fight mode.
Kven activist and curator Katriina Pedersen:
“Fight-flight-freeze responses help us react to acute threats. These natural and good responses can become troublesome if the threat is prolonged or we can’t protect ourselves from it. I can fight for my language, I can flight from my language or I can freeze in my language. All are appropriate responses to the stress of language assimilation. How is it for Kven people? How is it for other minorities? Are they in a constant stress of assimilation ? I can often feel an internal conflict in teaching kven language/tradition. Would it not be easier to just leave it? It’s strange to experience how people truly start speaking and living Kven only when they stop fighting/fleeing/freezing. I guess it is a process of acceptance and healing.”
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