Arctic Highways features artwork and duodji Sami handicrafts by twelve Indigenous artists from Sápmi, Canada and Alaska. The exhibition will make its world debut at House of Sweden and then continue touring North America for three years before returning to Europe in 2025 for the permanent collection at a new museum in Granö, Sweden.
In Arctic Highways, these twelve Indigenous artists tell their own story, through their own experiences, using their own forms of expression. The exhibition aims to foster understanding, pique interest, create bridges and put the knowledge of the Indigenous peoples on the global art map. It asks visitors to join the journey along the Arctic highways of culture and life that stretches from the past into the future – without ever passing a border.
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“Despite living in different countries and on different continents, the Indigenous people of the Arctic highways still regard themselves as peoples with kindred spirits.”
Arctic Highways is curated by Tomas Colbengtson, Gunvor Guttorm, Dan Jåma and Britta Marakatt-Labba. It is produced by the Gullers Grupp in Stockholm by the exhibition designers Igor and Ilkka Isaksson, in close cooperation with TYP Kulturkapital (TYP Cultural Capital) and the exhibition’s curating team. The exhibition is made possible by the generous support of Jan Wejdmark, social entrepreneur, founder of Arctic Highways and chair of Meeting Place Granö.
The participating artists in this exhibition are Matti Aikio, Tomas Colbengtson, Gunvor Guttorm, Marja Helander, Dan Jåma, Laila Susanna Kuhmunen, Britta Marakatt-Labba, Olof Marsja, Máret Ánne Sara, Sonya Kelliher-Combs, Maureen Gruben and Meryl McMaster.
Text from House of Sweden – Washington DC (Spring 2022)
Even as national borders have separated Indigenous peoples and, at times, pitted them against each other, their culture and art have traveled effortlessly across the Arctic landscape through the movements of the wind, sun and reindeer herds, creating a network of Arctic highways.
While invisible, these highways are cultural and spiritual, and they continue to thrive.
Despite living in different countries and on different continents, the Indigenous people of the Arctic highways still regard themselves as peoples with kindred spirits. In Arctic Highways, these twelve Indigenous artists tell their own story, through their own experiences, using their own forms of expression.
The exhibition aims to foster understanding, pique interest, create bridges and put the knowledge of the Indigenous peoples on the global art map. It asks visitors to join the journey along the Arctic highways of culture and life that stretches from the past into the future—without ever passing a border.
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