A nomadic people’s assembly for the north? A party for the periphery? A separatist movement for the Arctic colony?
Through associations with the Norwegian parliament – the Storting – Norwegian artist, composer, and percussionist Amund Sjølie Sveen has created an expansive art platform for intervention and reflection in the north. Although Amund now lives in Oslo, he grew up in Vadsø in Finnmark, where he also works as an artist. He’s being interviewed by Kasper Strömman, a well-known Finnish blogger with a background as a designer and television journalist on the cultural scene.
NORDTING is a mobile people’s assembly for the north and invites the public, from Vardø to Alaska, to participate in the council, called the Ting. Local participants, including bands, choirs, chairpeople, punk bands, cheerleaders, indigenous peoples, musicians, and dancers, are invited to address local issues.
NORDTING is a platform for intervention and reflection, and what happens outside of the assembly venue is just as important as what happens inside. NORDTING arranges parades on 1 May, broadcasts live from court cases, raises flags, and marks memorial days that no one else takes responsibility for.
NORDTING destabilises and drives wedges into both personal perceptions and public debates, and addresses issues of power, art, money, identity, separatism, populism, and perceptions in a Nordic context. NORDTING is creating a new reality and is helping to shift the prevailing narrative about the north and the region’s prevailing power relations.
