Solvej Dufour Andersen (born in Denmark) is an artist based in Geneva. In her minimalistic installations with sound and light, the Absence has been an ongoing subject of exploration. In her video pieces she is interested in the portrait art and the personal narrations of her protagonists. The interaction and the abilities of the storyteller to tell and the artist to retell are of mayor concerns. Andersen has participated in several exhibitions in Europe. For many years she was running the art-space Planet 22 with artist Peter Stoffel in Geneva. She was grated the Swiss Art Award in 2008.

Maja Dunfjeld (artist and professor) is a Sámi duojár living in Norway. She is one of the pioneers within the field of traditional Sámi handicraft, with her long practice and with a Ph.D. in duodji (University of Tromsø). Dunfjeld was one of the five young Sámi artists invited to do the art commission at Láhpoluoppal school in the mid 1970s, that came to have an important influence on the discourse and practices of Sámi art. Since then Dunfjeld has participated in several exhibitions. She is teaching and lecturing about duodji at the Sámi University College in Guovdageaidnu. In this context, her work and viewpoints regarding the interrelation between the Southsami language and duodji are emphasised.

Elina Heikka is director of The Finnish Museum of Photography in Helsinki since 2007. She is an engaged researcher and active writer. Elina Heikka worked as director at the Central Art Archives 2006-2007 and as researcher 2001-2006. Researcher at The Finnish Museum of Photography 1998-2001. Editor in chief for the journal of photographic art, Valokuva-lehti 1996-1997 and editor at the same journal 1994-1996. Heikka’s articles and research has been published in a multitude of publications.

Susan Hiller has lived and worked in London since the early 1970’s, when she first became known for an innovative artistic practice involving automatic writing, e.s.p, photomat machines, wallpaper, postcards and other aspects of popular culture. Hiller cites Minimalism, Fluxus, aspects of Surrealism and her previous study of anthropology as major source for inspiration. The common denominator in all Hiller’s works is their starting point in a cultural artifact from our society. Her work is an excavation of the overlooked, ignored, or rejected aspects of our shared cultural production. Her art has long been recognized for its visualization of everyday phenomena that lie within the recesses, byways and blind spots of our cultural surround. Using sound, video, text, photography or drawing – whatever her basic materials demand – her works open up an area of instability, where fixed meanings are dissolved, and where the audience is directly implicated in the emergence of new meanings which become visible only through the work and our experience of it. Hiller’s art has been recognized by mid-career retrospectives at London’s Institute of Contemporary Art (1986) and Tate Liverpool (1996), as well as by numerous solo and group exhibitions.

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.

Ole Henrik Magga is a linguist and professor at the Sami University College in Kautokeino. Magga was the leader of the Norwegian Sami Association from 1980 to 1985, and the first president of the Norwegian Sami Parliament from 1989 to 1997. Magga was to found the World Council of Indigenous Peoples (WCIP) in Canada in 1976. In the period 1992-1995 was Magga member of the UN’s cultural commission. In 2002, Magga became the chairman of the UN Permanent Forum for Indigenous Peoples. In 2006 Magga was made Commander of the Order of St. Olav for his efforts for the Sami and indigenous peoples.

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.

Michael Vinka has since 1984 studied and researched languages. Since 2005 he has taught Southsami at Umeå University, where he is now a lecturer in Sami languages. His research is directed toward the description of the Southsami and Umesami within the framework of generative grammar. He has been interested in Japanese, the African Bantu languages and the North American Iroke languages. In his opinion research within the generative grammar can and should be part of the local Sami communities. This research can strengthen the work of language revitalization.