Material:
Soundwalk, with a listening kit to take out, that includes an iPod playing a ten-chapter soundwork corresponding with places marked on the hand-drawn map created by Ragna Misvær Grønstad.
The work also included several guided sensory listening walks through Henningsvær, Lofoten/Lofuohtta during the month of September 2017.
Commissioned by LIAF / North Norwegian Art Centre (NNKS), 2017.
Dear Henningsvær and the Ocean that Embraces You! (2017) is an audio walk and sensory tour composed from and within Henningsvær’s landscape. The work spans Már Øyen Vister’s practice of deep listening with their research into local ecologies, ethnographies, labor and infrastructure.
Dear Henningsvær and the Ocean that Embraces You! deconstructs the prominent Norwegianization of Lofoten/Lofuohta and probes the ancient Sea Sámi’s and Sámi presence and culture being written out of the regional “Norwegified” local and regional history of the land and fisheries. The research behind the work includes field interviews with a Sámi fisherman from Henningsvær and extends further out to sea, exploring the ocean as an archive of materials that reflect power, nomadism, and the region’s economic structure.
The work also emphasizes interconnections among diverse species and ecological resources, calling attention to local plants consumed by animals and inhabitants of Northern Norway/Sábme.
Listening to the sea, sky, birds, buildings, bridges, and Henningsvær’s oral and written histories, Már Øyen Vister balances human and non-human presence, breaking from normative anthropocentric narratives and shifting focus to the insights and stories of the land.
Credits:
Created in collaboration and conversation with julev/lulesámi cultural worker and knowledge carrier Heidi Birgitta Andersen, children and youth from Henningsvær school, archaeologist Arne Håkon Thomassen (Sámediggi/The Sámi parliament), locals from Henningsvær incl. Alf Per Johansen, Synnøve Albertsen and ceramicist and fisher Cecilie Haaland and marine biologist and author Henning Røed.
The work features the bear luohti (joik) performed by Lawra Westerfjell Somby, two versions of Ánndaris Pávllo vuolle (trad) by Heidi Birgitta Andersen, the Julev/lulesámi legend of Ánndaris Pávllo who was guided home from the stormy Vestastjieggi/Vestfjorden as told by Heidi Birgitta Andersen, backings vocals by Elina Waage Mikalsen, accordion and accordeon compositions by Rune Larson, Kristine Tjøgersen plays clarinet on the “Marmelen” track, music is composed by Ragnhild N.Bruseth, Elin Már Øyen Vister and we also listen to the band Nuorta´s track “Seismikk” performed live at Trevarefabrikken feat. Elin Már, archive material from the NRK radio archives, an interview with Dr Heike Vester by the LoVeSe Drilling observatory, including Vester’s own field recordings of seismic shootings, killer whales (Orcinus Orca) og and pilot whales (Globicephala melas), all other field recordings by Elin Már Øyen Vister.
Heidi Birgitta Andersen reads and comments on excerpts of the Sámi ethnographer Johan Albert Kalstad interview (from 1992) with Sámi fisherman Nils Kalstad (b.1902) who used to fish out from Gullvika, Henningsvær with his Sámi peers.
The work also features a recording of the late composer/aesthetic philosopher Pauline Olivers playing a large conche (Recorded by Elin Már during the Midnight Sun Deep Listening Retreat (Sortland/Suortta, Vesterålen/Viestterálas, June 2015)
Thank you to historian Alf Ragnar Nielssen and archaeologist Eline Holdø for sharing their research on Sámi history and archaeological sites in the Vågan municipality.
Complete credits are found in the playlist above on Soundcloud.
Dowload the mini booklet for the sensory walk here
