«The World’s Northernmost Chinatown»
a platform for future speculation

Through artistic works and interventions, the festival exhibition responds to growing Chinese interest and influence in the north, as well as Norway’s desire for ever-closer cooperation along the Polar Silk Road. The current regional transformations and existing power structures, as well as speculative forecasts for the future, are starting points for artworks developed for the Barents Spektakel 2019.

In «The World’s Northernmost Chinatown», we glimpse eastward to understand a possible future in the north, where binary decisions give way to complex discussion about resources and society. In «The World’s Northernmost Chinatown», we view Kirkenes through a lens of Chinese influence in the north, sorting expectations from reality and opportunity from cost. In the «The World’s Northernmost Chinatown», we activate ourselves as participants in a future that is yet to be decided.

Welcome to Kirkenes: The World’s Northernmost Chinatown — a possible reality, a possible city in the north and the world.

With:

Alessandro Rolandi (Beijing)

Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay (Oslo)

Máret Ánne Sara (Kautokeino) in collaboration with Elin Már Øyen Vister (Røst)

Florian Schneider (Trondheim)

Hasan Daraghmeh (Palestine / Trondheim)

The Stich Project with

Hilde Hauan Johnsen (Bergen)

Kiyoshi Yamamoto (Bergen)

Marie Skeie (Oslo)

kinakål.no with

Håkon Lindbäck & Chen Qian (Oslo/Changsha)

Iliya Baidak (Murmansk)

Ilya Dolgov (St. Petersburg)

Irene Rasmussen (Tromsø)

Gluklya (St Petersburg/Amterdam)

TANG with

Kåre Grundvåg (Tromsø)

Trond Ansten (Tromsø)

Tatiana Ludanik (Moscow)

Matti Aikio (Tromsø)

Lijie Wang (Beijing)

Lin Wang (Bergen/Jingdezhen)

Marita Isobel Solberg (Tromsø)

Olga Jitlina (St. Petersburg)

Song Yi (Beijing)

Susanne M. Winterling (Tronheim)

Xia Jia (Xi’an)