Övergångar
Övergångar is an element of Konstmuseet i Norr’s county-wide activities that takes place outside of the museum’s newly opened premises in Kiruna. Taking the exhibition Transitions as a starting point, artist Jenny Nordmark has focused on issues of mankind’s relationship with nature and how landscape itself has changed throughout history. Through the location and performative elements of the project, Övergångar is not just historically connected to how the river was once used for timber rafting but is also linked to our current contemporary abilities to track movements and events far away through digital methods. The formation of the art work aesthetically contrasts considerably to its surroundings and as a result nature becomes in a sense more tangible.
The physical form of the artwork consists of a red orb that was launched for the first time in the Torne River on National River Day on August 17, 2019. The next launch will take place at 14.00 on May 2, 2020 from the riverbank in Jukkasjärvi, when the spring flow is allowed to take the orb down the river towards the Gulf of Bothnia.
Due to covid-19 and the ban on public gatherings, the release of the orb will not be a public event this year. Instead, the project's technical start will be broadcast live at the Konstmuseet i Norr's social media channels.
Which way the orb will travel and how long the journey will take is impossible to know, and nature’s unpredictable forces are a vital part of the work itself. Due to the ongoing climate crisis, natural changes in the river’s current and water levels that are dependent on the summer weather have become increasingly unforeseeable. The orb could follow the Torne River down to Haparanda, or travel through Tärendö where the river splits down to the Kalix River. Both the Kalix and Torne rivers lead into the Gulf of Bothnia and are currently national rivers, which means that they are protected from hydroelectric power plants. Free-flowing water is today one of the world’s most threatened biotopes as a result of human regulation.
The orb’s journey will be partially visible to follow physically in the landscape, and also followed digitally on the art museum’s website through a GPS system that will track the orb’s route south via a satellite at the North Pole.
If you see the orb on its journey you are welcome to share an image of it through social media with the hashtags: #älvklotet #konstmuseetinorr
Jenny Nordmark (SWE)
Jenny Nordmark, (b.1980) originally from Kalix, now lives and works in Stockholm. Nordmark has studied Performing Arts at Stockholm Academy for Dramatic Arts, Architecture at Chalmers University of Technology, and Design at the Academy of Design and Crafts in Gothenburg. Nordmark works in the boundaries between art, architecture and performative arts. She is also a part of the architecture firm Nordmark & Nordmark, which in 2014 was awarded the prize of newcomer of the year at the Luleå Business Awards. In 2015 the company was named Norrbotten’s designer of the year by Svensk Form. In 2018 Nordmark & Nordmark took part in the Venice Architecture Biennale with the work Tall.
Nordmark has participated in exhibitions at Luleå Konsthall (2016), the Royal Academy of Arts in Stockholm (2015) and at the Nordic Pavilion at Venice Architecture Biennale (2012). She has also created scenography and costumes for theatre and art performances in venues including ArkDes, (Sweden's National Centre for Architecture and Design), Gothenburg City Theatre, Stockholm City Theatre and now more recently at Norrbotten's Theatre.