The Sami Center for Contemporary Art will be represented at ArtVilnius Art Fair with a 49-square-meter booth featuring an interactive installation showcasing documentation from the performance festival “Performance Studies in Sapmi.” The 15th edition of ArtVilnius’24 will take place from October 4-6, 2024, at the Lithuanian Exhibition and Congress Centre Litexpo, with a focus on Northern Europe (https://artvilnius.com/). Participation of Sami Center for Contemporary Art is funded by Sametinget (https://sametinget.no/).
In addition to the team from the Sami Center for Contemporary Art, artist Ann-Sofie Kallok and performance internship artists Ina Trentes and Marit Bringedal Anti will be present in Vilnius during the art fair. Other participating artists will be presented digitally.
“Performance Studies in Sapmi” is a festival dedicated to politically charged live art. The inaugural edition took place from June 15-18, 2024, in Karasjok, Norway, at the Sami Center for Contemporary Art. Initiated by Dr. Marija Griniuk, the festival brought together established and emerging artists from Sapmi, Canada, Lithuania, and Estonia, showcasing 23 performances over four days. Part of these performances was video-documented by Albinas Liutkus, and four of these performances will be shown as an interactive installation at ArtVilnius, along with a fifth video—a presentation of the festival by Dr. Marija Griniuk. In addition to the video documentation, some artworks from the performances will also be displayed.
The festival aimed to create an intensive learning environment for young performance artists. Students from the Vilnius Academy of Arts collaborated with young Sami artists to create and present their performance works alongside established productions like “Guoddi” and “Suoidnekaboom.”
The booth will take the shape of a textile cave-like environment, where visitors will be invited to enter, lie on reindeer skins covering the floor, and experience the video-documented performances.
Performance ‘Guoddi’: Dancer Ánna-Katri Helander, composer Anthoni Hætta, designer and duojár Ann-Sofie Kallok, and dancer Sebastian Björkman. Photo by Albinas Liutkus
The following performances will be presented through video documentation:
• Guoddi DÁIDDADÁLLU 10 YEARS: At the intersection of Sámi tradition and modern art, this performance is a dialogue between avant-garde duodji and performing arts. Dancer Ánna-Katri Helander, composer Anthoni Hætta, designer and duojár Ann-Sofie Kallok, and dancer Sebastian Björkman intertwine dance and music to create an interdisciplinary tapestry of movement and sound.
• Suoidnekaboom DÁIDDADÁLLU 10 YEARS: Suoidnekaboom brings together reindeer stomachs, senna grass, and performing arts. The work explores these physical materials in relation to their inherent potential, cultural use, and context. The piece is by visual artist and artistic director Maret Anne Sara, actor Anja Saiva Bongo Bjørnstad, actor Anitta Katriina Suikkari, visual artist Li Taiga, and choreographer Alexandra Wingate.
• Collaboration between Sami and Baltic artists: Marit Bringedal Anti (SA) and Greta Balčiūnaitė (LT): This performance, set in a forest environment, was divided into sequences of dance, traditional narrative, and interaction. It culminated in a powerful meeting of the two artists, who united in song—Anti performing a traditional Sami joik and Balčiūnaitė singing a Lithuanian folk song. The fusion of their music created a rich auditory experience that blended their distinct cultural expressions into a unified conclusion.
• Collaboration between Sami and Baltic artists: Ina Tretnes (SA) and Milda Paukštė (LT): This evocative performance blended natural elements, dialogue, and body art. The piece began with the artist washing textiles in a river, symbolizing purification and a connection to the natural world, and followed by applying color to their bodies. The painting symbolized transformation and the blending of personal and cultural identities, with colors representing the interplay between their distinct but interconnected backgrounds.
Performance ‘Guoddi’: Dancer Ánna-Katri Helander, composer Anthoni Hætta, designer and duojár Ann-Sofie Kallok, and dancer Sebastian Björkman. Photo by Albinas Liutkus
“Performance Studies in Sapmi” created a platform for artists to explore politically charged themes, fostering cultural exchange and dialogue between Sámi and Baltic communities.Sami Center for Contemporary Art is looking forward to presentation in Vilnius!
