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Trading Routes: the intersection of art practices and placeRUTH BEER: Conversations surrounding the pipelines have marked a radical change in how we understand Canada’s relationship to the land of its northern region and coast. Perhaps no other event in recent years has divided popular opinion as distinctly as the proposed pipelines. For or against Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline and tanker project, to take a position on the pipeline simultaneously determines one’s position on the environment, the rights of indigenous cultures, the economy, and Canada’s global reputation. Over the course of the past five years, it seems any argument concerning Canadian identity can be settled over this one issue. Perhaps one discussion not represented by popular media in the pipeline debate is how art practices are engaging with the issue. Read more RELATE NORTH 2014
Art and Engagement with the cold war in shetlandROXANE PERMAR & SUSAN TIMMINS: A handful of Shetland’s Cold War sites survive. Although the equipment has been removed, and the remaining bunkers and buildings are largely derelict, these remains hold archaeological value. They contribute to the historic dimension of Shetland’s living landscape, cultural heritage and historic identity, highlighting the important strategic role Shetland played throughout the Cold War period, forming a focal point for artistic exploration of the Cold War years. This article considers the artistic strategies we have employed in our on-going collaboration to investigate Shetland’s strategic contribution to the Cold War. To date two projects, Countdown (2012) and Recount (2013), have been completed. Each uses a variety of means to raise awareness of questions posed by this period, focussing on those raised by the nuclear issue. Read More RELATE NORTH 2014
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Northern Places – Tracking the Finno-Ugric Traces through place-specific Art
MIRJA HILTUNEN & IRINA ZEMTSOVA: the art workshop was held in Syktyvkar, Komi in April 2013. It brought together art students and sta of various artistic disciplines from Russia and Finland. The aim was to explore together Finno-Ugric traces and find out what connects us to each other. 12 Finnish and 19 Russian art students worked together within a framework of community based art education, using place- specific art approaches. A number of cross-disciplinary Finnish-Russian group projects were carried out during an intensive 12 day workshop between the 2nd and 13th of April 2013. Students learned how to use artistic methods to survey a place, and how, rather than concentrating on differences, to use a shared understanding of northern socio-cultural situations as a source of artistic inspiration. Read more
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