Sami Pavilion, Nordic Countries at 59th Venice Biennale of Art

The Sami Pavilion, Nordic Countries at the Venice Biennale 2022: the artists of the pavilion, the works, the times, the periods, the cost of the tickets and the exhibition venue.

The 59th Biennale Arte will open to the public on 23 April. But on the 20th, 21st and 22nd there will be the various openings and collateral events that always suddenly animate the Venetian artistic life. The awards ceremony will take place on the day of the opening to the public.

The title of the 59th edition of the Biennale d'Arte is Il Latte dei Sogni that means The Milk of Dreams.

The invited artists are 213 from 58 countries. There are 26 Italian artists, 180 the first participations in the International Exhibition, 1433 the works and objects on display, 80 new productions.

In all, 80 nations will participate in the Venice Biennale in the pavilions at the Giardini, the Arsenale and in the historic center of Venice.

Go to the page of the 59th Venice Art Biennale

Sami Pavilion, Nordic Countries at 59th Biennale Arte of Venice

Press Release of Sami, Nordic Countrise Pavilion

In an historic first, the Nordic Pavilion in Venice is transforming into �The S�mi Pavilion�, with a project commissioned by Office for Contemporary Art Norway (OCA), with co-commissioners Moderna Museet and Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma / The Finnish National Gallery in Helsinki, Finland, featuring the S�mi artists Pauliina Feodoroff, M�ret �nne Sara and Anders Sunna during the 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia in 2022.
This transformation of the Nordic Pavilion celebrates the art and sovereignty of the Indigenous S�mi people, whose nation extends across the Nordic countries and into the Kola Peninsula in Russia.

This project, the official Nordic contribution to Biennale Arte 2022, comes at a critical time in the history of the Nordic region, where Truth and Reconciliation Commissions addressing Nordic colonialism have started in Norway, Finland and Sweden; when the S�mi are making restitution claims for their art; and artefacts and at a time when the Arctic is experiencing unprecedented consequences of the climate crisis.

�The S�mi Pavilion� exhibition is curated by a group consisting of S�mi scholar Liisa-R�vn� Finbog, director and chief curator of OCA Katya Garc�a-Ant�n, and S�mi land guardian Beaska Niillas; curatorial assistants: Liv Brissach, Raisa Porsanger and Martina Petrelli.

To mark this historic event, �The S�mi Pavilion� will be inaugurated on 21 April 2022, by Her Majesty Queen Sonja of Norway. The Presidents of the S�mi Parliaments in Norway, Sweden and Finland will be present.

By appointing the artists Feodoroff, Sara and Sunna to create a project that transforms the pavilion, OCA � the lead commissioner of the Nordic Pavilion for the Biennale Arte 2022 � aims to draw attention to the excellence of these S�mi artists, as well as the international relevance of their art and experiences.

Katya Garc�a-Ant�n

Commissioner and co-curator of �The S�mi Pavilion�, comments: These three S�mi artists are leaders of their generation. They all struggle and strive to defend S�mi world views � especially the interdependence of lands, waters and people � and have found the arts to be one of the few remaining spaces in which to make their voices heard. The increasing impact of climate change has finally focused the world�s attention on the urgent need to listen to lands and waters. This is at the core of S�mi perspectives and has been since time immemorial, which is why it is essential to pay attention to S�mi knowledges when confronting and combatting climate change.

Liisa-R�vn� Finbog

Co-curator of �The S�mi Pavilion� and S�mi scholar, comments: This is the first time the S�mi people claim a sovereign space in this way. We are a people who have a long and beautiful history. But how many know that history? How many people know our present? �The S�mi Pavilion� presents the artists of today, exploring ideas, images and issues that are part of our past and continue to be relevant today.

Beaska Niillas

Co-curator of �The S�mi Pavilion�, S�mi land guardian and activist, comments: These three S�mi artists are heroes in today�s society. They fight with one conviction: if we take care of the land the land will take care of us! With �The S�mi Pavilion� in Venice it is possible to present ourselves as a nation on our own.

A S�mi Perspective

�The S�mi Pavilion� exhibition presenting the artists M�ret �nne Sara, Pauliina Feodoroff and Anders Sunna, has been created through a multi-layered, collaborative approach in keeping with S�mi culture and customs.

Learning from the Elders: each of the artists has been enriched by individual dialogues with community Elders. Feodoroff has worked with S�mi educator and Professor Emerita Asta M. Balto; Sara with reindeer herder and S�mi knowledge bearer Karen E. M. Utsi; and Sunna with S�mi Professor of law and juoigi (practitioner of joik, the S�mi musical practice) �nde Somby. The S�mi artist and Elder Hans Ragnar Mathisen (co-founder of the first S�mi Artist Collective/M�zejoavku, and a participant in documenta14) is known for his maps of S�pmi and has created hand-made Guest Books especially for �The S�mi Pavilion� exhibition for visitors to leave messages and greetings.

Visual identity: A collaboration between graphic designer Hans Gremmen and artists and duoj�rs Fredrik Prost and Inga-Wiktoria P�ve. �The S�mi Pavilion� logo expresses S�mi practices and cosmologies. It includes three elements that tell a story about S�mi ways of perceiving the world. The first is a symbol derived from old S�mi weaving patterns, representing the sun, which is central in S�mi culture. The second relates to the pre-Christian S�mi spiritual concept of the inhabitants of S�ivu, the inverted world, where people walk with the soles of their feet against ours and it is thus a mirror image of our world.

This idea of parallel worlds is represented through the mirrored letters in the design. The third element relates to the most important star constellation in S�mi cosmology, the reindeer stag, and to a S�mi creation story involving hunting the wild reindeer, which is then tied to the fixed pole star. This also refers to the S�mi way of describing the world through the reindeer: the fur is the forest and everything that grows; the veins and the blood constitute the rivers and lakes. The pole star is the entrance to the upper world and the S�mi noaidi (spiritual leaders) climb the antlers of the reindeer to reach it.

Duodji is the philosophy from which S�mi material culture and creative practices emerge, and this informs the artists� work. Often mistranslated as �craft� by the western arts field, duodji is a S�mi epistemology that encompasses a specifically S�mi and complex worldview, combining spiritual, material and environmental knowledge, concepts of beauty and utility, and manual work, that converge in the processes of making objects and in the objects themselves. A knowledge holder and practitioner of duodji is called duoj�r.

S�mi Pathfinders (S�mi Ofelaccat): S�mi Pathfinders from across S�pmi will be mediators for �The S�mi Pavilion� and offer visitors the points of view of S�mi youth today. Partnering with �The S�mi Pavilion�, this youth-programme run by S�mi University College in Guovdageaidnu and the S�mi Parliament in Norway brings S�mi perspectives to schools around Norway.

External Indigenous Advisors: �The S�mi Pavilion� has also benefitted from the perspectives of Wiradjuri artist Brook Andrew (Artistic Director NIRIN, Sydney Biennial 2020, Australia) and Anishinaabe curator (Art Gallery of Ontario, Turtle Island/Canada), artist and educator Wanda Nanibush.

Useful information for the visit

Hours: Gardens from 10.00 to 19.00. Arsenale from 10.00 to 19.00 (from 10.00 to 20.00 on Friday and Saturday until September 30th). Closed on Mondays (except May 13, September 2, November 18).
Tickets: please visit the official website.
Phone: +39.041.5218711; fax +39.041.5218704
E-mail: aav@labiennale.org
Web: Biennale of Venice