OPENING EVENING

OPENING EVENING OPENING EVENING

Barents Spektakel 2023 begins on 24. February. The date marks one year since the Russian full scale invasion of Ukraine - the day when TRUST was broken and everything started to fall apart for so many people. With bridges between Russia and the rest of the world, including Norway, being burnt, is there a chance or even a need to keep the connection?

Opening Show
Welcome to the Barents Spektakel opening show on John Savio´s Square, as one person takes the dangerous trip at breathtaking heights above the absurd non-human mechanics, playing with physical laws and taking the risk for a better world. Tightropes, fire, wood constructions, lights and screaming songs are the ingredients in play in this year´s opening show, featuring the Russian Engineer Theatre AKHE, the Finnish screaming choir Mieskuoro Huutajat, local Kirkenes choir Crescendo, and Kletterkollektiv Berlin.

Festival Exhibition and Bar Opening
After the opening show on John Savio’s Square we will also open the festival exhibition at the Old Fire Station and the Nomadic Base festival bar at Terminal B!

Opening conversation: The Day When Trust Was Broken
Link to live stream of event

On day two of last year's festival, war broke out. This year's Barents Spektakel opens on 24. February, a date that marks one year since the Russian fullscale inavation in Ukraine. This gives a special backdrop for the festival's opening day.

What role does trust play in today's geopolitical landscape? How can we rebuild trust when it has been broken? How does different contexts affect the process of building trust and what does this mean for civil society and our future?

With the theme of TRUST as a running thread throughout the festival, we invite the artists from the project Two Sides of the River and three speakers to share their experiences and reflections on the future, while the Finnish screaming choir Mieskuoro Huutajat provides a cultural element, shouting into the evening.

Invited guests:

  • Tine Surel Lange, composer and artist from Lofoten and is one of the artist behind the project Two Sides of the River, presented at Barents Spektakel 2022.
  • Pavlo Grazdhanskij, Russian-Ukrainian artist and one of the artist behind the project Two Sides of the River, presented at Barents Spektakel 2022.
  • Rune Rafaelsen, former mayor of Sør-Varanger and former head of The Norwegian Barents Secretariat for 12 years. In 2020 he received the Russian Award Order of Friendship, in which he returned after the Russian full scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

  • Aurora Stetskevitch Møllersen, grew up in Kirkenes with a Norwegian-Russian background. Has been active in Barents cooperation through music and culture. Was in 2021-22 a student at the Nansen School of the Norwegian Academy of Humanities, and is currently studying International Studies at UiO.

  • Helge Svare, Dr. Philos. in philosophy with a thesis on Kant's theory of knowledge. Svare has his main position at the Labor Research Institute AFI at OsloMet, and is also Professor II at UiO. Among his main interests is research on cooperation, trust and dialogue. He is currently participating in a research project on trust-based governance and management.
  • Oleksandro Hrybenko is a PhD Candidate at the Department of Journalism and Media Studies at OsloMet. She is researching the risks women journalists face reporting on the war in Ukraine and their resilience. Previously she worked with human rights and media freedom. Between 2014 and 2018, Oleksandra worked as a freelance journalist for international media reporting on the war in Eastern Ukraine, including the Russian-occupied Donetsk where she is originally from.

Moderator: Hege Moe Eriksen is a journalist at NRK, with many years of experience as a foreign journalist. She has been NRK's Europe correspondent in Brussels, presenter of the foreign magazine Urix and made several documentaries and programme series. Hege is from Finnmark and grew up in Jakobsnes outside Kirkenes until she was 12 years old.

Mieskuoro Huutajat is a choir that doesn't sing a note. Petri Sirviö is the founder, composer and conductor of the group, established in the late 1980s. Now Huutajat has become one of the most popular ambassadors of Finnish art. Huutajat will take part in Barents Spektakel’s opening show and will present their “screaming songs” as part of the opening talk.

OPENING EVENING
OPENING EVENING