Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Russia, is characterized as a core area for the Nenets indigenous peoples and oil industries. Nenets and Izhma-Komi in this region have for many centuries maintained a traditional way of life rooted firmly in reindeer husbandry. Modern industrial and social development under Arctic conditions in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug causes severe changes, both on the environment and on the socio-economic situation of the indigenous peoples living in and of the land. How is the relation between the oil industries and traditional economy being negotiated?
Participants: Aileen Espiritu (historian, Canada/Norway), Geir Tore Holm (artist, Norway), Krishna Kireev (media journalist, artist, Russia), Kristin Tårnesvik (artist, Norway). Co-ordinator: Hilde Methi (curator, Norway) in cooperation with Yasavey (the Assosiation of the Nenets People).
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Espíritu, Aileen
Dr. Aileen A. Espíritu is born in the Philippines, grew up in Alberta, (Canada). She Is a senior research fellow at the Barents Institute, Kirkenes, Norway (since 2007). Espíritu’s research project is entitled “Service Provision, Environmental Management, and Sustainable Communities: a qualitative comparative study of Quality of Life in the Barents Region.” The aim of this research project is to determine how a good quality of life of Barents communities is sustained, or in some cases attained in an environment of transformation and change brought on by the “new economy”. Aileen Espíritu’s doctoral dissertation examined the impact of oil and gas development on indigenous peoples in Northwest Siberia, and analysed the industrialisation (Sovietisation) of their culture, economies, and way of life. She has recently completed a project on the political participation of indigenous women and men in Northwest Siberia since the 1930s.
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Holm, Geir Tore
Geir Tore Holm lives and works in Oslo, Gildeskål and Tromsø. He has been interested in social relations and power structures, often related to his Sámi background; first discussing individual identity, connecting to a larger cosmos, then addressing difficulties in ethnic representations. From 2003 developing the long-term dialogue and ecology project Sørfinnset skole/ the nord land with his partner Søssa Jørgensen in collaboration with Kamin Lertchaiprasert and Rirkrit Tiravanija from Thailand. In 2006 he was engaged as Project Manager for developing the Tromsø Academy Of Fine Art, where he used to be a Visiting Professor. He is now a Research Fellow at the Oslo National Academy for the Arts.
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Kireev, Krishna
Krishna Kireev aka Oleg Kireev (1975-2009) lived and worked in Moscow. Kireev was a media-journalist, artist and writer, author of “Media-activist cookbook” (Moscow, Ultra-Culture, 2006; national prize “Innovation- 2007”). He did various performances, such as nj’ing, news-jockeying – at the disco, the nj mixes are not tracks or videos, but news from the web.
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Methi, Hilde
Hilde Methi, Kirkenes, Norway, works as an independent curator and culture worker. She is interested in economic and geopolitical issues while engaging into local, cross-border situations through various collaborative projects, often of extended duration involving certain groups of people. She worked at different art institutions since 1993. From 2002 to 2007, she was the director of the art and culture production company Pikene på Broen (Girls on the Bridge) in Kirkenes. Methi is responsible for the Sami Art Festival 2008-2011.
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Tårnesvik, Kristin
Kristin Tårnesvik is an artist based in Bergen. Her focus of research has
developed from questioning ethnicity, geographic and national belonging
in the North, to investigate political ideology and hegemonic structures.
Focus in particular is upon the reciprocity between destruction and revolution,
vision and utopia, and acts of the individual within a political system.
She works with video, installation and photography. Tårnesvik is also a cofunder
of the artist-run space Knipsu in Bergen.