Text: Inghild Eriksen and Photo: 0047

It has been 15 years since the Barents Region was first named as a new spatial entity in the High North. 15 years perhaps has developed more mobility and transaction between countries, than ever before. This is what PAN-BARENTZ invites you to explore; the Barents identity at the crossroads of art, architecture, urbanism and politics; as a series of statements, investigations, readings and interpretations made by artists and architects.                

The exhibition is curated by Luba Kuzovnikova , among others, from the company Pikene på Broen. This is a company of art curators and producers, based in Kirkenes, north-eastern Norway, close to the borders of Russia and Finland.

Art leads to dialogue

- Our method is to let contemporary art functioning as a communication form and a meeting-place, that leads to dialogue and transaction of ideas between artists, local contributors and a bigger audience, explains Luba.

The exhibition is meant to be a travelling discussion forum that builds up the image of our future – the regional identity of our future represented by artistic and urban statements. Therefore, it is more than just an exhibition. They want to show the audience how cities cooperate across the borders, ask questions on what a Barents town actually is, and make the audience wonder and ponder what we might have in common up here in the Barents. Or, are we just inhabitants on what has become a playground for geopolitical and economic stakeholders?

But Pan-Barentz is more than this. There are a several other elements that in different ways examines the process of building a regional identity in the Barents. The exhibition is only one part; the Tour de Pan-Barentz. With Pan-Barentz in Situ artists and architects will develop permanent and temporary pieces in relation to the towns og Kirkenes, Murmansk, Kiruna and Kars in Turkey. The goal is here to stimulate to a more democratic and creative city-planning for the future.

Key-cities evolving

The project also involves Barents City Survey, a team of architects and city planners investigating what is happening to key-cities in the region, as a result of the Barents collaboration. And last but not least, the workshop: Barents Ideal Cities is arranged in three of the cities. Here the audience is invited to share their visions on the development of the future.   

- Art and culture becomes the underlying structure to where one creates communication between people, including across borders. But also for people that are living next to each other, Luba says.
                    
The exhibition was first opened in Oslo in Norway, and is at the moment situated in Tromsø, in the north of Norway. Soon, it is flying to Murmansk in Russia, and later to Rovaniemi in Finland and to Helsinki. For the last opening it will return to Russia, and will reside in Moscow for the last three or four weeks.

Architect teams:
0047 (Oslo), BuroMoscow (Moscow), NORD (Copenhagen), Dept. of Urban Design and Planning NTNU (Trondheim), Testbedstudio (Stockholm).

Artists:
Blue Noses (Viacheslav Mizin, Alexander Shaburov) (Moscow), Contemporary Santa Claus Artist Association (Eemil Karila & Kalle Lampela) (Rovaniemi – Berlin), Olga & Alexander Florensky (St Petersburg), Håkon Jensen (Tromsø), Svein Flygari Johansen (Oslo), Eemil Karila & Julija Goyd (Berlin), Los Torreznos (Rafael Lamata & Jaime Vallaure) (Madrid), Joar Nango (Trondheim), Andreas Nilsson & Mikel Cee Karlsson (Malmö), The Painting & Drawing Society (Olga and Alexander Florensky, Alexander Dashevsky, Irina Zatulovskaya), Amund Sjølie Sveen (Oslo), Antti Tenetz (Rovaniemi), Stian Ådlandsvik (Oslo).

Curated by Luba Kuzovnikova (Pikene på Broen), Øystein Rø
and Espen Røyseland (0047).

Related Links:

http://www.pikene.no/

http://www.panbarentz.com/

http://www.kulturrad.no/eus_kulturprogram/nyheter/pan-barentz/