Interdisciplinary Workshop series experiencing ethical site-specific methods of sensing and engaging with places
as a visitor
The workshops have explored alternative knowledge systems, and how some aspects of intangible cultural heritage can be addressed through artistic and spatial practices. They worked on important and complex ethical questions around sensing, documenting and archiving as a guest in Sámi lands and waters. Through the workshops, participants were able to share methods and resources and develop further collaborations.
5/2024
Várjjat - where the land and ocean speak...
The workshop invites the participants to move through the land and seascape of Várjjat/Varanger, indigenous Sea Sámi land, - listening, sensing, being in the spring; the beginning of the year in Sámi tradition, at Biergi/Kiberg/Kiiperi (Norwegian Sápmi) with artist and composer Elin Már Øyen Vister.
Location: Biergi/Kiberg/ Kiiperi, Finnmark (NO)
Dates: Friday–Sunday, 18-20 May 2024
12 participants
Programme includes visits to Várjjat Sámi Musea/Varanger Sámi Museum, Ceavccageaðge/Mortensnes cultural heritage site, Ihkkot/Ekkerøy or Hornøya seabird mountains, and common listening sessions.
Invited artist & composer: Elin Már Øyen Vister https://elinmar.com/
Invited performer & choreographer: Katarina Skar Lisa https://katarinalisa.com/
Coordination: Nancy Couling & Atso Airola with Elin Már Øyen Vister
[click here for more]
Várjjat - where the land and ocean speak...
The workshop invites the participants to move through the land and seascape of Várjjat/Varanger, indigenous Sea Sámi land, - listening, sensing, being in the spring; the beginning of the year in Sámi tradition, at Biergi/Kiberg/Kiiperi (Norwegian Sápmi) with artist and composer Elin Már Øyen Vister.
Location: Biergi/Kiberg/ Kiiperi, Finnmark (NO)
Dates: Friday–Sunday, 18-20 May 2024
12 participants
Programme includes visits to Várjjat Sámi Musea/Varanger Sámi Museum, Ceavccageaðge/Mortensnes cultural heritage site, Ihkkot/Ekkerøy or Hornøya seabird mountains, and common listening sessions.
Invited artist & composer: Elin Már Øyen Vister https://elinmar.com/
Invited performer & choreographer: Katarina Skar Lisa https://katarinalisa.com/
Coordination: Nancy Couling & Atso Airola with Elin Már Øyen Vister
[click here for more]
Árviesjávrrie - in
ancestral forests and mountains
The workshop invites the participants to experience Árviesjávrrie/Arvidsjaur indigenous Forest Sámi land - listening, sensing being in the summer with artist, reindeer herder and yoiker Jörgen Stenberg among others. We explore the question of forgotten ancestral knowledge, removed cultural heritage and erased collective memories among Forest Sámi, including discussions about forgetting in various colonial contexts.
Location:Árviesjávrrie/Arvidsjaur , Swedish Sápmi
Dates: Monday–Friday 4-8 August 2025
8 participants
Programme includes visits to Áhkánålggie Mountain, Grodkällan, traditional Forest Sámi architecture and common observing listening and performing sessions.
Invited artist, reindeer herder and yoiker: Jörgen Stenberg https://open.spotify.com/search/jörgen%20stenberg
Dedicated performance day Alberto Altes and inputs by Trine Hansen
Coordination: Susanne Ewerlof, Nancy Couling, Alberto Altes
[click here for more]
The workshop invites the participants to experience Árviesjávrrie/Arvidsjaur indigenous Forest Sámi land - listening, sensing being in the summer with artist, reindeer herder and yoiker Jörgen Stenberg among others. We explore the question of forgotten ancestral knowledge, removed cultural heritage and erased collective memories among Forest Sámi, including discussions about forgetting in various colonial contexts.
Location:Árviesjávrrie/Arvidsjaur , Swedish Sápmi
Dates: Monday–Friday 4-8 August 2025
8 participants
Programme includes visits to Áhkánålggie Mountain, Grodkällan, traditional Forest Sámi architecture and common observing listening and performing sessions.
Invited artist, reindeer herder and yoiker: Jörgen Stenberg https://open.spotify.com/search/jörgen%20stenberg
Dedicated performance day Alberto Altes and inputs by Trine Hansen
Coordination: Susanne Ewerlof, Nancy Couling, Alberto Altes
[click here for more]
Jiennagoahti
The listen to the event live:
https://petermeanwell.mixlr.com/events/4719235 <
The closing meeting in Bergen/Birgon will be held on 11 December in the Jiennagoahti- an art work dedicated to listening to Sámi sound art on Torrfjellet, Fløien, in the Bergen mountains. The project was initiated by artist Elin Már Øyen Vister in dialogue with Sami artist and architect Joar Nango, together with Lydgalleriet and Bergen Sámiid Searvi (Bergen Sami Association).
https://jiennagoahti.art/
https://www.lydgalleriet.no/
To honour and engage with the sound dimension of this space, we would like to dedicate the meeting to the sounds of Sámi land, sea and people, and to joik as a way of connecting these and more. The event will be live-streamed in collaboration with Peter Meanwell, Lydegallereit.
Location: Bergen (NO)
Date: 11th of December 2025
Maximum 12 participants
Programme includes presentation and discussion around recent work by artists Polina Medvedeva and Andreas Kühne: FACING THE SPILLS and RÁVDNJI - DEN STRIE STRAUMEN moderated by artist Sabine Popp
https://www.polinamedvedeva.net/
https://andreaskuhne.net/
https://bergenateliergruppe.no/sabine-popp/
Invited joik artists Trine Hansen and Katarina Dorothea Isaksen
Coordination: Nancy Couling in collaboration with Peter Meanwell, Lydegallereit
Streaming and technical set-up: Peter Meanwell
[click here for more]
The listen to the event live:
https://petermeanwell.mixlr.com/events/4719235 <
The closing meeting in Bergen/Birgon will be held on 11 December in the Jiennagoahti- an art work dedicated to listening to Sámi sound art on Torrfjellet, Fløien, in the Bergen mountains. The project was initiated by artist Elin Már Øyen Vister in dialogue with Sami artist and architect Joar Nango, together with Lydgalleriet and Bergen Sámiid Searvi (Bergen Sami Association).
https://jiennagoahti.art/
https://www.lydgalleriet.no/
To honour and engage with the sound dimension of this space, we would like to dedicate the meeting to the sounds of Sámi land, sea and people, and to joik as a way of connecting these and more. The event will be live-streamed in collaboration with Peter Meanwell, Lydegallereit.
Location: Bergen (NO)
Date: 11th of December 2025
Maximum 12 participants
Programme includes presentation and discussion around recent work by artists Polina Medvedeva and Andreas Kühne: FACING THE SPILLS and RÁVDNJI - DEN STRIE STRAUMEN moderated by artist Sabine Popp
https://www.polinamedvedeva.net/
https://andreaskuhne.net/
https://bergenateliergruppe.no/sabine-popp/
Invited joik artists Trine Hansen and Katarina Dorothea Isaksen
Coordination: Nancy Couling in collaboration with Peter Meanwell, Lydegallereit
Streaming and technical set-up: Peter Meanwell
[click here for more]
The workshops are inspired by the Sámi worldview’s deep belonging to and reciprocity to the land, as well as the non-relevance of the sharp western distinction between nature and culture. The workshops will introduce ways of negotiating site specific work in indigenous Fennoscandian Sámi lands, and enable participants to experience the interconnectedness of architecture and landscape, land- and seascape, physical and philosophical elements, circular understandings of time, with human and other living beings.
The workshops focus on sensing spaces and happenings, seeking to challenge inherited spatial conceptions through experiencing the land and meeting and listening to local people who have deep roots and knowledge, respectfully.
In this spirit the workshops work and act freely, in direct interaction with the materials, land-and seascapes, people and stories of the region and bring together experience from local knowledge keepers with people from the fields of architecture, art, sound and choreography/movement. We are looking for a combination of academic, and non-academic participants from different ages, backgrounds, ideally regional (less CO2 emissions) to take part.
Sápmi spans a region highly affected by climate change and loss of biodiversity, while neo-colonial policies including greenwashing capitalist development are leading to further ecological degradation at the same time as the Sámi peoples still lack self determination and self governance. The outcomes will be documented in non-extractive openly accessible ways, serving for further reflection.
ABOUT SÁPMI
Our workshop locations are part of Sápmi, a cultural region traditionally inhabited by Sámi people, stretching across the national borders of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. The Sámi people are the only recognised indigenous people of continental Europe by the European Union. Workshop coordinators in this programme are not Sámi and are not experts on Sápmi as an indigenous cultural territory. We recognise that our workshops take place in the indigenous territory of Sápmi and acknowledge that we are guests in this land. We ask our participants to do the same.
The workshops aim to establish a dialogue with indigenous perspectives, however we do not aim to reproduce indigenous approaches, rather understand how they could inspire and influence working methods across disciplines and cultures, in close consultation with invited specialists. We see these exchanges being carried out more around a plural cultural interface. The workshops are ethically committed to include and attend to all forms of life, indigenous or otherwise, human or non-human. They strives to work through a relational understanding of space to develop an ethics of inclusion and attention that should drive the development of more balanced research methods and more inclusive/responsible spatial interventions.
Assoc. Prof Nancy Couling, BAS (NO)
Bergen School of Architecture
Assoc. Prof. Alberto Altes (SE)
Asoc. Prof Per Nilsson, Umeå Academy of Fine Arts (SE)
Prof. Janne Pihlajaniemi, Oulu School of Architecture (FI)