Authors

Ekaterina Sharova¹;  ¹ Arctic Art Institute, Norway

Discussion

In this paper, I will examine art in the Arctic margins, focusing on contemporary art in the border region between Russia, Finland, and Norway. This militarized area, historically inhabited by the Sámi, Komi, Nenets, and Pomor peoples, highlights profound inequalities in artistic representation. The study draws on arts-based action research conducted between 2014 and 2022 to promote sustainability through art and education in the North, utilizing its extensive archive, alongside fieldwork carried out in 2024 in the border region between Russia and Europe.

The theoretical framework integrates studies on critical and political contemporary art in Russia, colonial relations in Russian art history, and the national romanticism that historically appropriated the Arctic and the North. Russian cultural power structures remain heavily centralized in Moscow, and colonial narratives from the 16th to 19th centuries have yet to be critically examined—unlike in neighboring Norway, Sweden, and Finland. I will analyze artistic strategies that resist neoliberal and extractivist paradigms, focusing on the work of Anders Sunna, Joar Nango, and Pola Rader.