The Best Country in the World

Project Spotlight: Russian and Norwegian artists reflect on a process of collaboration, exchange, and exhibition-building at a time when free movement has been impossible.

Creating Circumpolar Collaboration Land
A light-skinned hand holds a photograph of an island up to the skyline of a seascape, creating the impression of a continuous horizon line between the two places.

At the Barents Spektakel, the exhibition The Best Country in the World explores the possibilities of how one can travel across borders at a time when free movement has not been possible. Over the past year, four artists from Karelia (Artem Starodubtsev, Natalia Loginova, Natalia Egorova, and Victoria Kopeikina) and four artists from northern Norway (Janna Thöle-Juul & Malin Lin Nordström, Kristin Tårnes, and Trygve Luktvasslimo) have been taking part in a process of digital exchange – sharing information, contacts, knowledge and artistic ideas together. The result is a group exhibition that shows the power of imagination and camaraderie, and the lenses through which we perceive distant places.

A light-skinned hand holds a photograph of an island up to the skyline of a seascape, creating the impression of a continuous horizon line between the two places.
COURTESY PIKENE PÅ BROEN.

Initiated by curator and artist Sergey Terentyev, the exhibition in Terminal B and The Old Tourist Hotel is a result of the Guidebook to Norway/Russia project that has been ongoing since Barents Spektakel 2021.The artist talk with the group at Terminal B takes the form of a zoom seminar with English and Russian language options. The discussion gives insights into the process of sharing and exchange that has taken place over the past year between the artists, and what the future holds for the individual projects that have emerged from the guiding process.

Credit: This event was originally broadcast live on February 24, 2022 as part of Barents Spektakel. COURTESY PIKENE PÅ BROEN. 

This story is part of the Pikene på Broen Spotlight. View more content from the Spotlight here.