Festival Exhibition:
Voldemārs Johansons – Undercurrents

Premiere of the cinematic installation UNDERCURRENTS: an audiovisual environment inspired by the Arctic landscape unfolding in an ice space echoing the High Arctic.

The author – Voldemārs Johansons (Riga) – is drawn to the untouched Arctic wilderness in a desolate environment that is both rugged and fragile. Svalbard is a particular place where the underlying forces of nature manifest in a landscape still largely unshaped by human activity. This environment is shifting under the weight of climate change and increasing human activity in the region. While we search for co-existence of civilization and environment, this new artwork examines and documents the present visual of the Arctic landscape – glacial surfaces and mountain ranges, ice melting and water flowing.

The ice landscape designed by Peder Istad will immerse the viewers deep into the Arctic. Walk along the imposing icebergs and choose your own angle and a time-line to perceive the grand visual. After the exhibition is over, the sculpture will stay in the park, gradually melting away as a gentle reminder of fragility of the Arctic, highlighting the responsibility we all have for the future of the region.

The soundscapes of the film are jointly composed and recorded by Voldemārs Johansons and saxophone virtuoso Rolf-Erik Nystrøm (Oslo) in the unique surroundings of Svalbard – on the glaciers and in the mines, in the abandoned settlements and out at sea. For the première of UNDERCURRENTS, Nystrøm and Johansons will fill the ice space with a live performance of the soundscape.

At Terminal B, you can watch a creative documentary by Eva Johansone that will take you behind the scenes of how the film was produced on Svalbard.

Voldemārs Johansons – artist, composer, concept Māris Maskalans – cinematographer
Rolf-Erik Nystrøm – composer, saxophone
Eva Johansone – documentary film director
Jānis Kesans – camera
Ieva Stade – editing director
Pikene på Broen – producer
Peder Istad – ice sculptor
Ice-engineers – Marius Engan Johansen, Emil Olofsson, Aiman Esber, Taibola (Ilia Kuzubov, Aleksei Maklakov, Nikolai Terentev, Daniil Vlasov), Ivan Epikhov, Konstantin Korobov

We thank all local partners in Svalbard for their contribution: Captain Stig Henningsen of Henningsen Transport & Guiding, Kim Holmén of Norwegian Polar Institute, Līga Šīrava and Arctic Explorer, Spitsbergen Outdoor Activities, SvalSat, Olaf Storø, Stein Henningsen, Artica Svalbard, Galleri Svalbard, Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum, Sergey Chernikov, Ekaterina Putseruk, Petr Petrovich Putseruk, Elena Gnezdilova of the Pyramid Hotel, Elena Malakhova of Grumant, Russkii Dom, and many others.