2020 was a year festivals and travel weren´t possible and we could not invite any artists to Svalbard and Arctic Action. I finished my performance and art project The Boat late 2020 and turned into an exhibition from March 2021.
There has to be performance happening every year!
We hope to be able to invite artists again late 2021.
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I am here presenting photos from The Boat. The complete exhibition you will find at steinhenningsen.com
THE BOAT is a project Henningsen has worked on since 2018. One day some years earlier he got this strong image on his mind he could not forget. He could see himself row a burning wooden boat in front of a glacier.
The search for a wooden boat started and in 2018 the boat was in the workshop ready for some serious renovation. This was a boat used on Svalbard for leisure activities after the second world war until the 60´s. It was stored on land and started to dry up. When Henningsen got it in 2018 it was leight and fragile. The boat was renovated, oiled and painted and ready for its new purpose late 2018. During the renovation several new ideas for the project started to taake form and winter 2019 the boat was pushed through an Arctic winter landscape. The first part of the project had started...
The idea of the project is to create a sustainable and innovative event showcasing major international artists representing different tendencies in performance art. In the first edition of the festival we decided to host one artist at the time for between 7 and 10 days. To give time to the artist to come closer to the environment, to better understand it, feel it and work in it. Then we wanted to produce a 7-10 days festival where all artists collectively were invited for a certain period of time. Maybe they will as a group working together better understand the landscape and understand their challenges, how to work with the unique nature and animal life, the stillness and silence conveyed, as well as the societal structure of the small settlements. For the seventh edition of Arctic Action we want to invite ten artists from the North to tell their stories from the North.
Our objective of Arctic Action is to profile it as an innovative and high quality event of live art on the international contemporary art scene and highlight its natural core themes, the relationship between man and nature and environmental protection.
It is our hope that the art works produced in the exceptional natural environment of Svalbard will stimulate a greater awareness on the fragility of our planet.
The curator of Arctic Action is Svalbard native, Stein Henningsen, who has an extensive network on the international scene of live art. Having been active internationally producing work in Italy, France, China, USA, Canada, Czeck Republic, Ukraine, Germany, Northern Ireland, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, and of course Norway, Henningsen has an established position on the contemporary live art scene.
Arctic Action is a different international live event focusing on the artists working within an ecological approach. Moreover, discussing issues on the relationship of sustainable development and its relation to art, as well as art’s relation to scientific research on the environment.
Through its specific location, Arctic Action will in a natural way and quite probably through the artists work highlight global environmental issues.
Being a protected ecologic zone Svalbard is a natural example of a sustainable future. Most issues related to our planets survival and sustainability is inter-connected with Svalbard in one way or another, exemplified by the Global Seed Vault. A performance art event in this specific location can be exemplary in highlighting these vital issues.
Sometimes an image can speak more than a 1000 words, and we believe that the images created at Arctic Action will do that. Integrating the human action and its surrounding environment. Although the awareness on these global issues for a sustainable future are rising around the world, we believe that Arctic Action through its production of convincing artist images will be able to strengthen and support this development.
Org. No 914 901 774
Org name:
ARCTIC ACTION ART
Contact address:
c/o Stein Henningsen
P. O. Box 732
9171 LONGYEARBYEN
+47 99582558