The Great Defrost – Arctic questions from a contemporary Far-North artistic position

The Great Defrost was a symposium produced by the art and culture production company dóttirdóttir, Iceland in partnership with Hai Ku As, Norway and Gallery Gudmundsdottir in Berlin with the gallery as an organiser and Wayra Schübel as communication officer. It took place at the Nordic Embassies in Berlin on the 14th of September 2024 parallel to the Berlin Art Week.

Curator: Hulda Rós Guðnadóttir
Moderator: Julieta Aranda
With keynotes and inputs by: Elisabeth Brun, Katla Kjartansdóttir, Anamaría Garzón Mantilla, Marina Fokidis, Delhia Hannah, Camilla Skovbjerg Paldam, Inuuteq Storch
Funded by the Nordic Culture Fund in collaboration with Gallery Gudmundsdottir.
Publication DISTANZ Verlag

Here are some photos from the event.

Curatorial statement / Hulda Rós Guðnadóttir

With growing economic, political, and socio-cultural interest in the Arctic, the region has become increasingly valuable to a range of stakeholders, including governments, commercial actors, and local communities. As a result, it is emerging as a potential future battleground for resources and access.

The regions bordering the Arctic—historically referred to as the “Far” or “High North”—are deeply implicated in these developments. It is therefore urgent that cultural practitioners in these regions engage with Arctic-related questions on their own terms and from their own positions.

The Great-Defrost, held in collaboration with the Nordic Embassies in Berlin, brought together internationally recognised academics, artists, and cultural workers from these regions and beyond. The symposium addressed key questions through critical, artistic, scholarly, and art-historical perspectives, with a particular emphasis on viewpoints rooted in the Far North.

In conjunction with the symposium, Distanz Verlag published a book comprising essays by participating speakers, alongside a monograph of the long-term art-as-research project Keep Frozen. Developed over a decade, the project engages these questions through material, visual, performative, and filmic approaches.

Symposium

13th of September 2024

10:00 – 10:10 Words of welcome by Guðný Guðmundsdóttir (Gallery Gudmundsdottir) and Ambassador of Iceland Audunn Atlason.

10:10 – 10:30 Words of welcome by moderator Julieta Aranda Introduction of participants.

10:30 – 10:40 Kaleidoscope of images – 'The Arctic and Far-North as trope in the discourse of climate change.' - as presented in media, internet and art works.

10:40 – 11:20 Keynote: Elisabeth Brun, PhD Media Studies, experimental filmmaker and currently visiting scholar at The School of Arts, Design and Media, Kristiania University College, Oslo. 'The Disappearing Sublime: The Far-North landscapes as a trope in the artistic discourse on climate change (working title)'.

11:20 – 11:40 Respondent and Q&A: Dehlia Hannah PhD Philosophy, Associate Professor of Environmental Aesthetics at University of Copenhagen.

LUNCH BREAK

13:00 – 13:10 Kaleidoscope of images - 'Medieval imagery depicting the Far-North, curious objects in cabinets of curiosity and today´s souvenirs.' - as presented in media, internet and art works.

13:10 -13:50 Essay – lecture Katla Kjartansdóttir, PhD candidate in cultural studies at the University of Iceland. 'The Puffin teddy in the Cabinets of Curiosities (working title)'.

13:50 – 14:10 – Respondent and Q&A: Camilla Skovbjerg Paldam PhD Art history, associate Professor at School of Communication and Culture - Art History at the University of Aarhus.

14:10 – 14:50 Essay - lecture Anamaría Garzón Mantilla PhD Art History and Theory, independent curator and full-time faculty at College of Media and Contemporary Arts (COCOA) at Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Ecuador. Director of post(s), academic journal.´The quest for gold (working title)´.

14:50 – 15:10 – Respondent and Q&A: Marina Fokidis, independent curator and writer, founder of South as a State of Mind magazine and Athens Kunsthalle.

BREAK

16:00 – 17:00 Presentation by artist Inuuteq Storch, the first photographer, Greenlander and indigenous person to represent Denmark at the Venice biennale (in 2024).

17:00 -17:15 Closing remarks and summary by moderator tbd.

BREAK

19:00 Dinner with participants and special guests.