On the Edge of Europe

Four students plus one teacher from the theatre design department at the art academy took part in the project ‘On the Edge of Europe’. This was a collaboration between the University of Rovaniemi, teachers’ education autonomous visual arts, the University of Industrial Arts Helsinki, department of Design for Theatre, Film and Television and the department for theatre design at Academy Minerva in Groningen.

A group of 17 people stayed for eleven days at Karesuvanto, in the Northern parts of Scandinavia, at the crossroads between Finland, Norway and Sweden. This is an area with an average population density of less than one inhabitant per square kilometre. How does men live at the end of the 20th century in the area around the polar circle? What has changed under the influence of Western mass media? What is the influence of the Western pattern of consumption on the lifestyle of the original population, the nomads of Lapland, the Sami?

The exhibition is a visual report of the experiences of the three groups in their encounters with men as well as nature in this abandoned landscape. The exhibition will take place simultaneously in Helsinki, Rovaniemi and Groningen, featuring work by all participating students.

In Groningen, the exhibition even takes place at two locations at once: the USVA Noorderlicht Photogallery and the Watertower.