Barents Spektakel calling for Arctic focus

It’s been seven years now since the opening of the first Barents Spektakel festival in 2003. The festival has developed as a cultural-political cocktail with contemporary art, performances, literature, theatre, film, seminars and concerts as ingredients, spiced with the current issues related to the Barents Region and the High North in general.

Over the years the festival has quadrupled both in size and in global attention. This year more than 200 artist from 14 nations join forces with the goal to create a spectacular festival. The organizers from Pikene på Broen are looking forward to the festival opening on Wednesday the 3rd of February.

Breakthrough in 2009#1101572Official logo

– Our biggest problem now is the accommodation capacity in Kirkenes, art director Luba Kuzovnikova from Pikene på Broen explains.

Pikene på Broen has been contacted by people from all over the world who wants to take part in the festival. There will journalists from national media in Russia, Germany and Great Britain and several other countries. There will be researchers and artist from all over the world and Kuzovnikova also hope there will be lots of spectators.

– Last year’s festival was a breakthrough for Barents Spektakel, with an estimated total of 10.000 spectators at the festivals different events. Hopefully this year’s festival will be equally popular or maybe even better, says Kuzovnikova.

Arctic Calling

The organizer of the festival, Pikene på Broen, is a company of art curators and producers, with several ongoing projects. However, their largest project is the annual Barents Spektakel festival, with a total budget of approximately 650.000 EUR. Every year has a new slogan and a new focus. For the 2010 festival they have chosen Arctic Calling.

– This year we want to focus on Arctic experience and Arctic knowledge. What the Arctic is all about? To give a broad picture of the theme there will be several art exhibitions, theatre concerts, open debates and conferences, all focusing on the diversity of Arctic issues.

Key questions for the festival are on whether the Arctic is a bank of resources or a zone of innovation? Is it the periphery or do global interest for recourses make it a center of attention? Is the focus in the north quality of life or quality of space? What perspectives do the small towns in the North face when the economy expands in the light of the oil and gas exploration in the Arctic, climate change, mineral exploration and mining activities?

Kuzovnikova promises all visitors and spectators a five days festival with a wide variety of events. From the beginning on Wednesday the 3rd to the end on Sunday the 7th. The festival will as always be kick started with a spectacular opening show in the town square of Kirkenes. . This year performed by the German theatre ensamble Pan. Optikum and their show IL CORSO. Key elements to the show are actors, opera-singers, mechanical installations and impressive pyrotechnics.

See the entire festival program at the www.barentsspektakel.no web site.