The Sámi Pavilion
April 23–November 27, 2022
In a historic first, the Nordic Pavilion in Venice is transforming into The Sámi Pavilion, with a project commissioned by Office for Contemporary Art Norway (OCA), with co-commissioners Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Sweden and Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma/The Finnish National Gallery in Helsinki, Finland. The Sámi Pavilion features the Sámi artists Pauliina Feodoroff, Máret Ánne Sara and Anders Sunna at the 59th International Venice Biennale in 2022. This transformation of the Nordic Pavilion celebrates the art and sovereignty of the Indigenous Sámi people, whose nation extends across the Nordic countries and into the Kola Peninsula in Russia.
This project, the official Nordic contribution to the 2022 Venice Biennale, comes at a critical time in the history of the Nordic region, where Truth and Reconciliation Commissions addressing Nordic colonialism have started in Norway and Finland and are in discussion in Sweden; when the Sámi are making restitution claims for their art and artefacts, and at a time when the Arctic is experiencing unprecedented consequences of the climate crisis. The Sámi Pavilion exhibition is co-curated by a group consisting of Sámi scholar Liisa-Rávná Finbog, director and chief curator of OCA Katya García-Antón, and Sámi land guardian Beaska Niillas; curatorial assistants: Liv Brissach, Raisa Porsanger and Martina Petrelli.
Conceived as a project of relations across generations, holistic Sámi knowledges and Sámi spiritual thinking, the artists of The Sámi Pavilion present works that repair the traumas inflicted by colonialism and assert Sámi knowledges and spiritual values.
Feodoroff’s performances and video installation are generated collectively, to free Sámi bodies and minds from colonially enforced forms of existence and fundraise for the rewilding of ancestral Sámi forests and rivers endangered by industrial policies.
Sara’s suspended sculptures and olfactory works highlight the centrality of reindeer in Sápmi, not only as material for survival, but as kin in Sámi life, knowledges and spirituality. The works heal and strengthen, bringing hope to the Sámi nation and urgently calling for the end of state regulations that threaten the reindeers’ lands, the future of reindeer herding and of the Sámi people.
Sunna’s series of large-scale paintings with soundscapes bears witness to 50 years of legal struggles to defend his family’s forest reindeer-herding rights, outlawed on their own land by the state. The sixth section of the installation embodies a vision of resilience and empowerment for the decade to come.
At a time in which the Arctic region is experiencing the unprecedented impact of climate change, the advocacy of these artists resists and overcomes the repression of Sámi world-views, which while personal, reflects wider concerns of Sápmi today.
A new publication entitled Čatnosat. The Sámi Pavilion, Indigenous Art, Knowledge and Sovereignty will be published on April 21. Čatnosat is edited by Liisa-Rávná Finbog, Katya García-Antón and Beaska Niillas, assistant editor Liv Brissach. With Contributions by Brook Garru Andrew, Asta Mitkijá Balto, Liv Brissach, Pauliina Feodoroff, Liisa-Rávná Finbog, Katya García-Antón, Harald Gaski, Timimie Gassko Märak, Beaska Niillas, Máret Ánne Sara, Sigbjørn Skåden, Ánde Somby, Anders Sunna. Čatnosat is published by Valiz and OCA Norway.
During the exhibition period, audiences are invited to leave their thoughts in the Guossegirji—Libro dei Visitatori—Guest Book, hand-crafted by the Sámi artist and Elder Elle Hánsa/Keviselie/Hans Ragnar Mathisen.
Extended programme of The Sámi Pavilion
Performance: Matriarchy by Pauliina Feodoroff, April 22, 3:30–4:30pm
Performance: Poet in Residence, Timimie Gassko Märak, April 22, 5:30–6pm
aabaakwad 2022 The Sámi Pavilion (April 22–25) (“it clears after a storm” in the Anishinaabemowin language) comes to Venice in 2022, as a part of, and in solidarity with, The Sámi Pavilion.
ÁRRAN 360° (August 26–September 12) features six commissions by a new generation of Sámi filmmakers and digital artists Elle Márjá Eira, Marja Helander, Ann Holmgren, Hans Pieski, Siljá Somby and Liselotte Wajstedt.
TBA21-Academy Ocean Fellowship 2022 is initiated by TBA21-Academy in collaboration with The Sámi Pavilion, OCA, aabaakwad and Artis.
