Art world report·Kiruna
As Mining Demolishes Kiruna, Its Art Festival Returns With Otobong Nkanga, Metahaven and Sami Voices
Kin Konstfesten returns to Kiruna, Sweden, from February 11 to 14, 2027, for its fourth edition, bringing artists, researchers, miners and reindeer herders together in a town being demolished and relocated for mining.
For the fourth consecutive year, contemporary art will be celebrated and debated at Kin Konstfesten, taking place from February 11 to 14, 2027, in Kiruna, a town on the Swedish side of Sapmi that is undergoing large-scale demolition and relocation driven by the mining industry. Over four days, one of the world's northernmost art museums will become a space for encounters and exchange, bringing together artists, architects, researchers, curators, writers, miners, reindeer herders and visitors.
The programme opens with two exhibitions: The Feeling Sonnets (Transitional Object) by the artist duo Metahaven, and The Benevolent Food, a group show exploring food as a site of conviviality and of cultural, ecological and political relations. Among the highlights is a conversation about Shaped by Many, a new commission by Otobong Nkanga developed in collaboration with craftspeople and artists in Sapmi, and a presentation by the writer Elin Anna Labba on Johan Turi's Muitalus samiid birra, published in 1910 as the first book about Sami life written in Sami by a Sami author.
The festival's questions are inseparable from the ground it stands on. What happens to art and life when the land is being transformed and climate change accelerates? How can food, craft, architecture, research, poetry and art become ways of thinking together? Political scientist Ragnhild Nilsson will trace a century of struggles for Sami influence and self-determination, and a panel of cultural institutions and independent initiatives will examine their changing roles, with participants including Tone Hansen, director of Moderna Museet, and Ovul Durmusoglu, director of Index. Miner and writer Jari Soyrinki will lead a walking tour through the disappearing old town.
An excursion to the village of Puoltsa will introduce participants to the land, food traditions and challenges facing reindeer herding today, with representatives of the Laevas and Girjas Sami communities. Other participants include Janelle Baker, Cooking Sections, Goldin+Senneby, Eyal Weizman, Keg de Souza, Claudia Tazreiter and Sandra Wasara-Hammare. The festival is organised in collaboration with the Public Art Agency Sweden, Linkoping University and Mittuniversitetet, and begins at 15:00 on Thursday, February 11, concluding at noon on Sunday, February 14, 2027.
