Røst AiR is a nonprofit, multidisciplinary, artist-in-residence, and artist-run association. We are based on the mainland of Røst, 67°North, all year but during the summer season (June-øAugust), we move out to Skomvær Lighthouse, half an hour’s boat ride from the mainland of Røst.
Røst and Skomvær are situated more than one hundred kilometers out into the Atlantic Ocean from the city of Bodø/Bådåddjo, and due to their remote placement, it has a special Atlantic climate.
The average temperature is plus twelve in the summer and four in the winter. Røst is part of the Lofot-Lofuohta mountain range in the county of Nordland/Nordlánda, Sábme / Northern Norway. Røst is ancient sea Sámi land which we honor, listen to, speak of, and work in solidarity with.
The Røst archipelago consists of more than 356 islands, islets, and skerries, including the bird mountains of the Nykan nature reserve, once among Northern Europe’s most numerous pelagic seabird colonies. They are still breeding grounds for hundreds of thousands of pelagic seabirds such as puffins, razorbills, guillemots, etc., but the seabirds are struggling and have been in sharp and critical decline since the mid-60s due to climate change, causing heating oceans and changes in currents; pollution; historical overfishing; human pressure on habitat; and bycatch, among other factors.
We self-organise Røst AIR and run the residency voluntarily with AIR support from Nordland/Nordlánda County Council.
We are not a regular artist-in-residence and consider ourselves more of an artist community where everyone visiting takes responsibility for making it as good an experience and living environment for all, including the island itself and all living here.
Our focus and interests include but are not limited to: ecological transition, climate change, loss of biodiversity, geopolitics, green colonialism, self-sufficiency, diversity, intersectionality, intersections of ecology, de-colonial thought and action, post-colonial feminism, queer actions and theory and diversity, and anti-fascism.
Site-specific projects, process-based work, and interdisciplinary meetings are encouraged. Having said this, we would like to underline that we are open to an infinite number of singular or communal expressions of artistic practices.
Røst AiR is working on alternative ways of navigating, creating, and being in this world, exploring, for instance, the post-fossil fuel potential.
We are inspired by the regional coastal Sámi and Northern Norwegian fisherman-farmer tradition, and we tend a small lighthouse vegetable and herb garden and run a mini summer café at Skomvær Lighthouse.
Røst AiR continues thanks to a collective volunteer effort of all the working group members and interns who have contributed since our early beginnings in 2013.
Røst AiR is currently programmed and run by Elin Már Øyen Vister (NO) and Sarah Sekles (BRA/DK).
Visiting artists have also contributed greatly to Røst AiRs growth with care, ideas, and labor.
