Workshop 1:
Várjjat - where the land and ocean speak ...
The workshop invites the participants to be guests in Várjjat/Varanger, Sea Sámi land - listening, sensing, being in the spring, which is the beginning of the year in Sámi tradition, at Biergi/Kiberg/ Kiiperi (Norwegian Sápmi) with interdisciplinary artist Elin Már Øyen Vister and choreographer/performer Katarina Skår Lisa, hosted by Trond Henriksen (Cape East Arctic Adventure).
Dates: Saturday–Monday, 18–20 May (arrival 17 May) 2024
Invited artist and composer: Elin Már Øyen Vister
https://elinmar.com/
Invited performer/dancer/choreographer: Katarina Skår Lisa
https://katarinalisa.com/
Host: Trond Henriksen
Coordination: Nancy Couling & Atso Airola with Elin Már Øyen Vister
We use deep listening as an ethical method/approach for site-specific work. We spend time with questions of how artists or cultural workers can develop ethical and respectful, reciprocal, and relational ways of working with land they visit as guests, and do not have a cultural connection, or heritage to, in particular on /in indigenous land.
The workshop will spend time listening to the land and sea scapes' innate x-stories (a new term which is more inclusive to women’s, LGBTQIA and non-hierarchical and non-patriarchal stories), to the shore, the birdlife, and human and nonhuman life that lived and have lived here. We listen to local x-story at The Várjjat Sámi Musea, Ceavccageaðge cultural heritage site, local seabird mountains, and at Cape East in Biergi/Kiberg, where Trond Henriksen is based. Henriksen is the father of dancer-choreographer-peformer Katarina Skår Lisa who takes part in the workshop as the main participant.
Day 0 (travel day)
- Arrival to Biergi/Kiberg
- Welcome dinner and introductions
Day 1
- Guided tour of Pomor museum Várjjat/Vardø
- Visit Steilnese Memorial to the Witch Trials
- Visit Partisan’s museum Biergi/ Kiberg
- Round of sharing and discussion - Dinner by Cape East Arctic Adventures
Day 2
- Full day excursion to Hornøya lighthouse bird sanctuary, Várjjat/Vardø
- Silent “sound walk” up the mountain, practicing Deep Listening to the birds, land- and seascapes
- Cooking lunch at the lighthouse
- Reflections and discussion on the experience
- Dinner by Cape East Arctic Adventures
- Evening excursion to Persfjord and Immersive sensing at Sauna, Várjjat/Vardø
Day 3
- Discussion Round: Tuning in
- Excursion to Ceavccageaðge/Mortensnes cultural heritage site
- Walk, exercise and performance experiencing the ground, led by Katarina Skar Lisa
- Lunch & fire in goahti. Yoik performed and taught by Katarina Skar Lisa
- Dinner by Cape East Arctic Adventures
The workshop will be facilitated by interdisciplinary artist, composer, land/water defender Elin Már Øyen Vister (NO) based on Røst in Lofuohhta/Lofoten, who has a deep passion for deep listening as developed by the late Pauline Oliveros and for dedicating their practice to documenting the historical and contemporary decline in the sea bird populations on Røst.
Elin Már has been invited by Katarina Lisa Skår Lisa to come to Várjjat.