Exhibition Space

Ruben Mardulier (Belgium) and Mimi Wascher (Austria/Belgium) will present their works at the Spitsbergen Artists Center.
Meditations on blue
Mimi will present a performative installation. The work is part of her ongoing project BLUE - States of Matter // Nuances of Truth and explores the color blue as a space to escape into from binary thinking, outdated realities and from shape all together. The artist asks herself what kind of relationship she can have with a color - can it be a friend, can it offer solutions, can she envy it or can it envy her? Inspired by Maggie Nelson’s book “Bluets” and the Svalbard phenomenon of the “blue days” Mimi invites you to enter her installation, explore it and let this mysterious color give you whatever it may be that you need that day.
Ruben Mardulier (1993) is a Belgian multimedia artist with a background in contemporary circus. The works he will present at the Spitsbergen Artists Center are the result of naive, often humorous associations upon his surroundings. Here at Longyearbyen, Mardulier found inspiration in both the mandatory reflective vests and the absence of the sun.
Thank you to The Goethe Institute for their support, to the Austrian Embassy in Oslo for co-hosting the event, and a special thank you to Mara Rosmann who has been our guide and helping hand here on Svalbard

The Svalbard Guide Association, in cooperation with the Spitsbergen Artists Center are proud to present:Michael Laugherty, amateur astronomer, and landscape and astrophotographer. While rewarding, astrophotography can be a challenge for beginners, leading to feelings of frustration. This session will introduce astrophotography to the complete beginner, and talk about how to photograph the night sky using only the capabilities of an everyday smartphone. You will come away with information on how to locate dark sky sites and avoid light pollution, where to learn the basics about celestial objects, understanding the camera settings on a smartphone, and the basic techniques to get you started.

French art stsMarielle Guille presents
EcoArtVenturière (in french), or EcoArtVenturer in english.
This idea is about women having a strong ecological consciousness, practicing art and loving nature. Women who are sensitive and smart, and feel open to the world with all their senses, able to choose a different path, not afraid of being in nature, and having a deep relationship with it.
Program:
Words for Ecology, Art and Adventure
In her backpack, the EcoArtVenturer has ...
Letters, we will create answers together
Output: The answers will be sent to each person who asked a question. The entire work will be sent to all participants of the workshop. It could become a future art installation.
Marielle is in residence at Spitsbergen Artists Center and her project is supported by Creative Europe and the Giethe Institute.

-1.8 is the temperature salt water begins to freeze.
Kirsty Banks goes cold water swimming everyday in St Ives Cornwall. She is fascinated by the colours, reflections, and movement on the ocean's surface. She's obsessed with the wind direction, weather, and knows exactly what a 1 degree difference feels like in the water. A 1 degree difference is enough to feel the rising temperatures of the ocean.
Svalbard’s incredible landscape has drawn Kirsty back for her 3rd visit and 2nd residency to continue studying and photographing sea ice. These initial painted and sewn studies are the beginning of her ongoing work on ice as she embarks studying Oceanography to understand the science behind the ice and the ocean she loves so much.
These pieces are mixed media and textile studies inspired by the ever changing surfaces, patterns and beauty of Sea Ice

Observances er en pågående utstilling av de flerfaglige verkene til Marieke ten Berg og Louise Rapley
Observances is a work in progress exhibition of the multidisciplinary works from Marieke ten Berg and Louise Rapley escription goes here

In this one hour workshop we will experiment and play with some creative writitng games in a friendly and informal atmosphere. We will explore some examples of poetry that responds to landscape and place, and have a go at creating a a poetic souvenir of Svalbard. Suitable for any writers from beginner to experienced.
About the tutor
Isabella Mead is Artistic Director of the UK-based Poetry School and an international award-winning poet. Her collection Dear Rwanda was published in 2023 and responds to two years living and working in Rwanda. She is currently staying at the Spitzbergen Arts Centre writing poems based on her experiences in Svalbard.
Read more about The Poetry School and Isabella Mead here: https://poetryschool.com/about/staff-and-trustees/ and read some of her poems here:
https://poems.poetrysociety.org.uk/poets/isabella-mead/scription goes here

Gideon Juckes and Rei Takeuchi, who are the Tokyo based duo Music for Isolation. They create intimate music, ancient and new, at the crossroads of folk, classical, improvisation, innovation and tradition. They have always had a fascination with the Global North, and Svalbard in particular. In a collaboration with local Svalbardian, Trond Olaf Holmen, they created the musical accompanient for his film “Above The Midnight Sky”which features Sarkofagen. Music for Isolation will perform three free concerts on Svalbard during JuneDescription goes here

DWhat will future cultures think of the scarred earth we leave behind?Liz Miller Kovacs and Stefanie Loveday comes to Nordover to talk about their artist residencies at Spitsbergen Artists Center and the work they've created in the process.
Liz Miller Kovacs is a Berlin-based artist who photographs her body in surreal conditions of the Anthropocene era and presents landscapes altered by extraction industries as the new sublime. Stefanie Loveday works with photography, video and sound to create site-specific works exploring the materiality and ecologies of local environments.escription goes here

The four performing artists Louisa Yaa Aisin, Anna Kuusamo, Kai Er Eng and Lena Bondeson are sharing our working methods on the art-activism project “New Nordic Poling - NNP” in collaboration with the composer/noise maker Giuseppe Gavazza. During our 14 days stay at Spitsbergen Artist Center we have been exploring how to connect pole dancing and activism with intersectional political issues (e.g. on climate change & de-colonialism) in and around Longyearbyen.
The sharing will consist of a somatic practice relating to earth and a slogan workshop relating to climate change. It is voluntary if one wants to participate or just be present.

Thawing Dreams is the realization of the second part of our Arctic project, which began last winter with the installation Frozen Dreams.
Thawing Dreams is a sound installation in which voices narrating dreams blend with the sounds of melting ice and nature recorded during our current summer residency at the Spitsbergen Artists Center. The space also features works by Elizabeth Bourne, that interact with and complete the installation.iption goes here

In January 2024 Anthony Cervino visited Longyearbyen for eight days. During this research trip, he developed ideas for artwork in response to the polar night and the larger political, cultural, and ecological landscape of Svalbard. Over the next six months, he reflected upon this initial experience, and influenced by Norwegian souvenir designer Arne Tjomsland, made new works in response to his winter visit.

Using both made objects and found objects, Cervino’s carefully composed pieces allude to the rituals that convey both sentimental and cultural meaning. He approaches his work with an eclectic hand exemplified by a studio practice that celebrates materiality and process-based exploration.

The work on display in this exhibition can be understood as mementos of ephemeral experiences, souvenirs marking fractures both environmental and personal

Swedish artist Mikael Hultgren explores the unique and rugged environment in and around Longyearbyen through cyanotypes, pinhole camera images, digital collage, and time lapse. Longyearbyen is a place where time seems to stand still and at the same time be in constant motion. By interweaving this desolate nature with archive photos from his father's life, Hultgren is creating a new story - where the landscape of Svalbard today meets his father's past in an examination of both his relationship with this place and his father.

In cyanotypes Hultgren tries to capture Svalbard's magical blue tones and tragic gray tones by mixing in local coal dust to change the chemicals and the aesthetics. Both the cyantypes and the pinhole camera images give space to the unexpected, where coincidence sometimes takes as much space as myself.

The exhibition a time lapse piece where the passage of time is made visible. Here, the landscape becomes a living actor that both changes and remains, a reflection of time and our movement in it.

Svalbard is a place where time and space cross, where the past meets the future, and where nature is in constant struggle with the human presence.

Paintings, drawings, and sculptures by New Zealand artist Susan Mabin. While staying in Nybyen Mabin realized she is seeing only the "tip of the iceberg" of a complex and paradoxical situation at the intersection of Svalbard's coal mining history and human habitation, the challenges of tourism, and the existence of the wild life of Svalbard and its difficulties in surviving in an overheating world.

Paintings by Dutch painter Marijke Soulimans inspired by her residency in Longyearbyen, Svalbard.

Situated in the unique environment of Svalbard, the exhibition and performance Carbon Footprint explores the broader environmental impacts of human activity. Multimedia artist Dragan Vojvodić and writer Ljiljana Maletin Vojvodić blend art, environmental awareness, and social change in their collaborative work.

The artists have participated in residencies across Norway, Iceland, Finland, Sweden, and Greenland. These experiences have provided them with opportunities to conduct research, curate exhibitions, lead community initiatives, and create a wide range of creative works, including books.

Now, they are participating in an artist-in-residence project in Svalbard, recognized as a Sustainable Destination with a unique history and reality. Carbon Footprint highlights how global challenges influence individual identities and reshape communities worldwide.

Through their art, Dragan Vojvodić and Ljiljana Maletin Vojvodić encourage viewers to reflect on their environmental impact and embrace the shared responsibility of fostering a more sustainable future. This exhibition invites the audience to engage with pressing global issues and consider their role in shaping a more resilient world.

As for many years our famous Xmas Market took place 30.11.24-01.12.2024 at Spitsbergen Artists Center, Ny-byen. There was something to eat and drink (no alcohol unfortunately) and the most important there were a lot of locally made souvenirs. A lot of Artists from Longyearbyen have set their tables. Unforgettable experience:)

Paintings from 2018 to 2023 inspired by and made on Svalbard, including a photographic installation 365 Days of Hiorthfjellet.

The work investigates the design principles to apply to the High Arctic climate. With the starting point that everything is possible, Melting Models takes three materials: water, sub-zero temps and impermanence, to ponder on the snow drift on the roads, soot gathering on the harbours and heat absorption of the black ice. Exhibition shows 6 possible design structures that should/should not be taken seriously.

21 April Work-in-progress exhibition with artists-in-residence Pat Barker from Canada presenting abstractions of the Arctic landscape rendered with cold wax technique, Jo Haskins from England/France who continues her ongoing experimentation with the forms found in the Arctic, Evert Tito from Peru/France who will play traditional Peruvian music from the Andes on flute, and Elisabeth Jarstø from Norway who will create an video and art installation experimenting with the forms and transformations found on Svalbard.

Work-in-progress-utstilling med artister-in-residence Pat Barker fra Canada som presenterer abstraksjoner av det arktiske landskapet gjengitt med kaldvoksteknikk, Jo Haskins fra England/Frankrike som fortsetter sin pågående eksperimentering med formene som finnes i Arktis, Evert Tito fra Peru/Frankrike som skal spille tradisjonell peruansk musikk fra Andesfjellene på fløyte, og Elisabeth Jarstø fra Norge som skal lage en video- og kunstinstallasjon som eksperimenterer med formene og transformasjonene som finnes på Svalbard.

30 March Join award winning polar photographer Joshua Holko for an hour of amazing photographs and tips on wildlife photography.Joshua find remote and other-worldly landscapes to be his passion. Drawn to sweeping and rugged landscapes, he is in his element. In the wilderness. Josh searches for the pristine in nature: solitariness, peace, tranquility, and the grandeur that comes from the pure, unspoilt, often threatening and sometimes beautiful, but always dramatic and powerful natural world

18 March Join artist Kirsty Banks for a fun and creative weaving workshop, using materials you can find in the home. Using a simple card loom, make a woven piece of Art for your wall. There will be some materials provided, but please feel free to bring some wool, old fabric or plastic bags, which can be cut into strips and added to your piece.

3 March Inspired by logbooks from past polar expeditions, the idea is to write down the things you did today, or yesterday, or last week, as crazy or trivial as the events might be. It can be a dry summary of your day, a diary-like entry or even a drawing. Whatever colours your world!
The ‘logs’ will be part of the project Only Barely Still, tha

21 February Norwegian artist Louise Rapley will show her work in progress, "Algid Sentry" showing the development of Arctic Ice in macro and micro. Dutch artist Marieke ten Berge will show studies and discuss her process for her upcoming picture book on the beauty of the Arctic.escription goes here

American artist and professor of art, Adam Fung, will be exhibiting 14 surrealist oil paintings on copper at the Spitsbergen Artists Center from 7 June to 24 June. The work presents possibilities and images, sometimes surreal or frozen in the moment. Ghostly apparitions, life sized hands, delicate candles, celestial bodies, vital elements like water or fire, searching eyes, and a melding of uneasy spaces- all attempting to work in concert to create new narratives.scription goes here

Coupling an archeologist's perspective with an artists approach, Swiss artist Nina Schipoff creates the illusion of a blissful moment in a remote place.Nina Schipoff (D/CH) is a interdisciplinary artist working in painting, photography and installation. She graduated from the Geneva University of Art and Design( HEAD) in 2008 and obtained a postgraduate diploma in painting from the Geneva School of Stage Set Design in 2009. In her artworks she questions the interaction of man and nature and their ecological and geopolitical impact
Her narrations evoke the longing for a untamed paradise in a complex world

This is an exhibition of portraits created between October and November 2022. There are thirty portraits and quotations from over fifty hours of interviews, with people who were on Svalbard at the time. No portrait was posed or directed, instead each portrait is a candid moment during the course of an interview. These portraits do not represent the community but merely reflect some of the people that were here in that moment of time. At the end of the exhibition the portraits will be gifted to those who sat for them.

Swedish artist and film maker Lisa Vipola presents the film documentary 'Resan till Mirakelmannen' (EN: Journey to the Miracle Man) at Spitsbergen Artists Center in Nybyen.
Together with Fabian Wigran, these two chronically ill friends travel to Brazil to meet John of God, “The Miracle Man”.
Neither of them believes in the supernatural but their curiosity and the hope of being cured makes them go with an organization that promises healing through spiritual surgery. Will they be helped, indoctrinated or redeemed?
'Resan till Mirakelmannen' premiered in 2018 at Gothenburg Film festival and has been screened in Sweden, Poland, Latvia and San Francisco.

Estonian sound artist Juhan Vihterpal came to Svalbard to create a soundscape inspired by Svalbard which Estonian performance artist Lumi Kristin Vihterpal will use for her performance in mid-October in Longyearbyen. Juhan collected environmental sounds from Svalbard and then processed them. He also used a modular synthesizer to create the soundscapes inspired by Svalbard. At this event Juhan will work to mix the material he created here, and do a live improvisational electronic performance. This is a work in progress with the final piece being used by Lumi Kristin in her later performance. This is a great opportunity to observe and experience how a sound artist works and to hear how this work in progress is being formed. Please enter by the side entrance. Special thanks to Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Nordic Culture Point.

Working with mud, seaweed, rusted iron, Margaret has created a palette of colors unique to Svalbard, and made a series of prints. There will also be exhibitions of colored ice in locations around town.

Between the Glacier and the Sea presents a series of site-responsive installation and performance projects based on Liu’s extensive research in the Arctic region and speaks to the interconnectedness and fragility of our relationship with the natural environment.
For over two decades, Beili Liu has been making spatial compositions that examine themes of migration, cultural memory, labor, social and environmental concerns. Liu is a Chinese-born American visual artist who has exhibited extensively internationally. Liu’s current artistic research focuses on the complex ecological, geopolitical, and environmental concerns facing the Circumpolar North and the urgency of the climate crisis on a planetary scale. Her Circumpolar North research has received support from the Andrew Carnegie Fellowship, the Fulbright Arctic Chair Distinguished Scholar Award, and the Pollock Prize for Creativity.

March 3 to April 27 Three Svalbard Artists featuring new works from Elizabeth Bourne’s Arctic Sanctuary series, a performance by Stein Henningsen and videos of past performances, and new paintings by landscape artist Olaf Storø will be on display.

18 March Louise Rapley will present a screening of her work in progress screening, showing the new work that she is doing in Svalbard. There will be questions after the showing.

Korean video artist will present three films at a screening on April 19. She will show her films Plantarians and Get Some Sunshine, as well as her work in progress done in Svalbard, Arctic Garden. There will be a questions period after the film.

August 10 The Oru Project by the Kotzebue Kollectiv from Estonia. Heritage, hauntology, and the ghosDescription goes here

August 22, Australian Artist Amanda Page will talk about her current Spitsbergen Artist Residency project on documenting seeds for a seed deposit from the Australian Grains Genebank to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. She will also share some recent works from her arts practice based on projects that developed from research trips to Antarctica, Finland and Iceland.escription goes here

September20, Exhibition of paint pen drawings by Norwegian artist Andreas Lærum exploring the transitions between nature and technology, light and dark.

October 20 Experimental musician and sound artist James Welburn presents a varied selection of experimental music including his work in progress made on Svalbard.

November 5, Learn about Hong Kong Canadian artist Michelle Fung’s lifelong art project of a grand ecotopian/dystopian world in the year 2084. Populated with giant puffins, a mountain-size ice-cream maker, and ruled by the Ice Queen (an ice sculpture) and her magicians, Northlandia is a surreal arctic tale of the precarious balance between human greed and the magical landscape, between the north and the rest of the world and between self-preservation and the rapidly changing climate.
You will be see the original woodcuts she recently created in Longyearbyen and around Svalbard, create a pencil rubbing from an original woodblock and be guided to create your own futuristic drawing.