Artscape Nordland

Breaking down expectations of what art is and should be among its public

Artscape Nordland was an international art project that aimed to bring art to the places people live. There are only a few art museums in Norway. Furthermore they are far away in the sparsely populated district of Nordland. That's why the project created a collection of publicly accessible sculptures.

The project started in 1992 as a hybrid between a site-specific project and a museum collection. It was initiated by the cultural committee of Nordland County Council. The artistic director was Maaretta Jaukkuri. The problematics of central versus peripheral was a key issue. How could a remote fringe area build a space generating public attention and while contributing to making its territory visible through contemporary art? In the nineties, the project created a lot of local and regional debate and controversy. Some thought that nature in Nordland did not need any art works. Others did not like the fact that public money was used for art. And another argument against the international character of the project was that tourists would actually rather visit the region to see art works made by local artist.

Bjørn Nørgaard, The Stone Church, 1995 - Evenes Municipality - photo Vegar Moen

 

After completing the first phase, the project included 33 sculptures divided into 2 districts: 32 sculptures in Nordland, 1 sculpture in Troms. In 2009 and 2010, another 2 artworks were added: one in Dønna and one in Rødøy. All of these works show the evolution of sculpture art over the past six decades. This is a period in which our understanding of what a work of art is has widened, and the place where the work of art stands has become integrated. Of the 36 participating artists, 19 are from the Scandinavian countries, 7 of them from Norway and the 17 remaining from all over the world. The idea behind this selection was to build a strong Scandinavian and Norwegian presence to showcase the culture of these countries, but they also wanted to extend the concept to the global art scene.

Gediminas Urbonas, Four Exposures, 1993 -

Saltdal Municipality - photo Werner-Zellien

Now that the sculptures have become part of the local scene, people think of them as of their own. Many municipalities are very happy about their participation in the project and for some of them the sculpture has even become a symbol of the place.

Among other things the works focus on topics such as:

nature in dialogue with culture; 

architectural structures related to the visitor’s presence; 

the human figure in the landscape; 

local cultural artifacts integrated into new settings; 

time-related processes; 

representations of cultural institutions (temple, museum, studio) 

and interventions in the landscape that either make the overlooked apparent or create an ongoing situation for interaction with an existing site.

A visit is clearly recommended!

Further information:

Skulpturlandskap Nordland
Norway