PARTNER EVENTS
During the festival days, a host of independent events will be organised by Pikene på Broen’s fellow cultural producers and local businesses, helping to make Kirkenes the most happening place in the North during late February.
Book Presentation: Ljudmila Ulitskaja
Saturday 25. February, 13:00 - 15:00
Sør-Varanger Library
Free event
Ljudmila Ulitskaja will come to Kirkenes and Sør-Varanger library for Barents Spektakel! Ulitskaya is considered by many to be one of the greatest Russian writers of our time. In connection with the fact that the novel The Big Green Tent is now available in Norwegian (Det store grønne teltet), she will be given a book presentation by translator Marit Bjerkeng. The novel The Big Green Tent describes what it is like to grow up in the Soviet Union, from Stalin's death to the fall of the Berlin Wall. There will also be an opening speech by Mayor Lena Norum Bergeng. The event is a collaboration between Sør-Varanger library, the Barents Secretariat and Pikene på Broen, and supported by Fritt Ord.
Performance Trust Trio/Quartet
Sunday 26. February, 15:30
Café Open 15:00 - 17:00
Sør-Varanger Kultursal Café
Samovarteateret invites for an improvised collage of trust, dance and music. Come and enjoy moving pictures and hot soup in the Samovarteater cafe. Dance: Runa Sætervoll, Music: Øystein Blix, Moving pictures: Nikolay Shchetnev and Pavel Rumyantsev.
Lecture: The history of The Old Fire Station
Sunday 26 February
15:00 – 16:30
The old fire station
A school, a hospital, an infirmary, a maternity ward, a parish office, apartments, a fire station and a municipality office… Now, as we temporarily transform this grey-blue concrete building in the centre of Kirkenes into an art gallery, it is added to the list of many roles the house has had. Locally, the building is often referred to as "the old fire station", but both before and after this phase of its life, it has had a chequered and colourful history. In collaboration with the local history club Sør-Varanger Historielag, we invite the festival audience to a history lecture with the club´s Knut Wisløff and staff from the Fire Department in Kirkenes.
Open Exhibition and Guided Tour at the Ä´vv Skoltesamisk Museum
Sunday 26. February
Museum open from 15:00 - 19:30
Guided tour at 17:00
There will be organised a bus to Neiden - more info coming.
On the festival Sunday, the Ä´vv Skoltesamisk museum in Neiden will have special opening hours. There will also be a guided tour of the exhibition with Hanna-Maria Kiprianoff before the concert by Niilas at 18:00. It will be possible to book a seat on a bus from Kirkenes - more details coming soon.
International Cultural Cooperation in the Barents Region
Workshop for the professional art and culture industry
Monday 27. February, 11:00 - 13:00
The Barents Institute (1st floor Barentshuset)
Register your interest in the pre-registration form by 20. February.
How is international cultural cooperation in the Barents region affected in a time characterised by international economic decline, the ongoing war in Ukraine, and a long pandemic? What efforts are needed to promote and develop new cooperations?
Eric Sjöström welcomes professional cultural workers, producers and organisers to participate in a dialogue and workshop that will be part of a report commissioned by The Barents Council/Working group on Culture which aims to shed light on the situation of cultural life in the Barents area and what development efforts are needed for the future. If you are interested in these topics, come and have your voice heard on Monday 27. February!
The workshop is led by Eric Sjöström in collaboration with The International Barents Secretariat and Pikene på Broen. The venue is provided by The Barents Institute. Register in the sign up form and we will get back to you with further details. Coffee and snacks will be provided for participants, and lunch will be offered after the event. The working languages will be English/Scandinavian.
Photo exhibition: Through the eyes of refugees
Kirkenes Reception Centre
27. February, 14:00 - 18:00
They have fled war, dictatorship and misery. They carry heavy baggage filled with broken promises, and now they dream of freedom. The world's northernmost reception centre, the one right here in Kirkenes, has become a safe haven for many who have had a long journey to finally experience safety and build trust again. In order to open our own eyes, we must see through the eyes of refugees.
What life stories do we see through these images? What happens when trust is broken and can we contribute to creating new trust among our new neighbours and members of the community? We want to show how trust develops over time among newly arrived refugees in Norway, and their reflections on the concept of "trust". Their dreams, thoughts and future prospects.
Talking Barents: Trusting the neighbour?
Monday 27. February, 16:00 - 17:30
Ofelas Arena, Free event
Serving of snacks from 15:30
Trust has been built between individuals, institutions, politicians, organisations and researchers from both sides of the Norwegian-Russian border through decades of work. Russia´s war against Ukraine has stopped most regional and national cooperation. How does this affect our relations to our neighbour in the east? Can we continue to trust those we have considered to be our friends? Is there a difference between the trust between individuals and the trust between governmental bodies? You are invited to a talk where researchers from NIBR (The Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Research and Norce talk about these topics with locals who have been involved in Norwegian-Russian cooperation for decades. The discussion language will be Norwegian.
Silent Film Concert: Arsenal
Monday 27. February, 19:30
Aurora Kino Kirkenes
Buy Ticket Here
Tromsø International Film Festival (TIFF) and Barents Spektakel present the silent film concert "Arsenal" (1929), Ukrainian-Soviet film set in the aftermath of the First World War and the January Uprising in Kyiv in 1918. The film shows the brutality and cruel consequences of the war, and at the same time follows a strike and a soldier who has recently returned from the war and supports the Bolsheviks against Ukrainian nationalists. The director Oleksandr Dovshenko (1894-1956) is considered one of the most important filmmakers from the Soviet Union.
The raw war scenes, conflicts and human suffering in the film are accompanied by live music by the Norwegian "doomsday orchestra" ATTAN in collaboration with Nikolai Olshansky (double bass, bass guitar), jazz musician from Severomorsk in the Murmansk region, and Tomas Järmyr, drummer known from among others Motorpsycho. The music was composed during TIFF 2023.
ATTAN consists of:
Remi Semshaug Langseth – vocals
Aleksander Ralla Vilnes – drums
Fritz Ragnvald Rimala Pettersen – bass
Bjørn Are Johansen – guitar
Mathis Ståle Mathisen – guitar
Seminar: Game over for people to people and institutional cooperation? What do the researchers say?
Tuesday 28. February, 13:00 - 15:30
UiT/Barentshuset (1st floor)
The event will also be streamed
Link to facebook event
Two major research projects on Norwegian-Russian cooperation funded by the Norwegian Research Council are ready to share their findings. Join us and hear about 20 years of experiences with Barents cooperation! What did we learn from these years and is it possible to wish for a future where cooperation can be revived? How did the civil sector in Murmansk Oblast develop during the covid pandemic and after the start of the Russian war against Ukraine? In the research project VOLRUSS we will show what impact different collaborations between the civil sector and people to people cooperation in Murmansk and Northern Norway has had on the development of volunteerism in the health and care service sector in Murmansk. Researchers from NIBR and Norce present their preliminary findings and invite you to a questions and answers session. The discussion language will be Norwegian.
Kirkeneskonferansen
The Kirkeneskonferansen is held every year in the same time period as the Barents Spektakel, and through a rich programme and several collaborations, the two events contribute to making Kirkenes and Eastern Finnmark a central meeting place every winter. Over the years it has become one of the most important venues for people who are interested in high north policies and the discussions concerning the development of the Barents region. Kirkeneskonferansen aims at highlighting various aspects of the development in the north, regarding politics, business development and social development.
This year, The Kirkeneskonferansen and Barents Spektakel are collaborating on a concert with The Arctic Philharmonic and former members of The Kyiv Soloists in Kirkenes Church on Wednesday 1. March - which will be the finnisage of the festival and the opening evening of the conference. The Kirkeneskonferansen takes place on 1. & 2. March, see the full programme here: www.kirkeneskonferansen.no
