Center-periphery

18 November 2021

How does the media describe / reinforce myths and prejudices in the Nordic countries? Should we challenge the usual worldview with large urban centers in relation to undefined countryside? What is the center and what is the periphery of a round sphere? And who has the right to define what is what?

How do we describe the Nordic countries today?

How are north and south depicted? What happens when we turn the map, when old ingrained structures disappear and when economic and cultural boundaries and conditions are disturbed? What does the future look like? New areas are exploited; Greenland can become the center of the mining industry, new transport routes cross the Arctic, Norrland gets battery manufacturing. Does this upset the mental image that the center is traditionally in the south in the Nordic context? With the seminar, we want to create conversations around these questions and look into the future!

Program

14.00: Welcome and introduction, Joachim Granit, Färgfabriken

14.05: Andreas Brännlund from the network North Cultitude 6263 presents the network and today’s issues around the center and periphery. 14.20: Daniel Urey, Färgfabriken, about the exhibition Symbiosis and the concept of hinterland

14.35: Fredrik Högberg, composer. About working artistically with Nyland as the center.

3:00 p.m.: BREAK

15.10: Clara Bodén, filmmaker, producer and artist shows the film Stamnätet (4.30 min) and talks about her artistry which is very much based on the Center – Periphery perspective.

15.45: Amund Sjølie Sveen, artist, Harstad, talks about Nordting (The Nordic Assembly), “a nomadic people’s assembly for the Nordics, a party for the periphery, a separatist movement for the Arctic colony”.

16.05: continued talks on center-periphery issues, with, among others, Terese Bengard from Hela Sverige ska leva and Ole Tolstad from North Cultitude 6263 Language: Nordic (Sv, No, Dk) Moderator: Anderas Brännlund, North Cultitude 6263 and Joachim Granit, Färgfabriken

Participating Clara Bodén is a filmmaker and producer. For ten years now, she has been running the creative platform Vapen och Dramatik AB. In 2015, she was nominated for a Guldbagge for her film “Lgh + bil + allt ja har och öger” and was awarded the Jan Fridegård prize in 2020 as well as the Västerbottens Kuriren’s Culture Prize in 2021 for an artistic work that moves in the tension between city and countryside. During the year, Moderna Museet acquired her film Stamnätet for the permanent collection. Amund Sjølie Sveen (b. 1973) is an artist, born and raised in Vadsø in Finnmark. Graduated from the Conservatory of Music in Tromsø, with a diploma in solo percussion from the University of Music in Gothenburg. He works within a wide range of expressions and media, with a particular focus on examining specific socio-political issues in our globalized world order, often based in the Nordic region. Since 2014, the nomad folk movement NORDTING has had its artistic base. www.explorerstraveler.com www.nordting.no Fredrik Högberg is a Swedish composer and music producer and university lecturer in musical design. He lives and works in the courthouse in Nyland in Ångermanland. Andreas Brännlund is an artist and cultural producer. He is co-founder and chairman of the board of the network North Cultitude 6263, idea developer and artistic coordinator at Teater TRE RUM and artistic director at Lat63 art production.

Related

The program is a collaboration between Färgfabriken and North Cultitude 6263 within the framework of the exhibition Symbiosis at Färgfabriken. The Symbiosis exhibition at Färgfabriken is a kind of experiment in symbiotic thinking in the meeting between research, art, architecture and much more. North Cultitude 6263 is a collaborative network of artists and cultural creators along the 62nd and 63rd latitudes. They problematize concepts such as centre-periphery, twist perspectives and question established geographical approaches and value perspectives. The distance along the 62nd and 63rd latitude is 47% of the Earth’s circumference, while the map book often equates the length of all latitudes based on the equator. By considering the aforementioned northern latitudes, this headband on the top of the earth in an east-west direction, an area is created that cuts right through nation-states and identifies a new “culture-geography”. The sudden economic interest in certain areas combined with climate change is creating stress on the environment and cultures along the latitudes. At the same time, there is a growing cultural identity in many places that create strong cultural expressions. The network tries to orient itself in this geography and connect cultural practitioners of different backgrounds and professions. Today, around 500 artists and cultural creators from Greenland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Western Siberia are part of the network, and around thirty projects have been created through the network, which has existed for ten years. North Culture 6263