Kväänibiennaali 2025

In the past several years, the performative and creative aspects of Kven culture have come into greater focus, with both musical and theatrical activities creating new venues for the expression of Kven identity. More people are becoming aware of their own Kven background, among them professional contemporary artists. In line with the “Kven Spring” of the recent years, with a blossoming of new artistic and cultural expressions, the Kven Biennial has since 2021 been an area for research, dialogue and the display of Kven contemporary art. In a broader landscape with few boundaries or even expectations of what Kven art should be, we stand at an exciting point in an emergent Kven art movement.   

A wasp’s nest with spells to avoid being stung. Glass jars with minerals on a kitchen shelf, and a chest. Tar that has first been burned under the peat in a tar pit, before being slowly dripped on the floor of the exhibition space. Fragments of stories reassembled.   

Kven Biennial 2025 shows works by Eili Bråstad, Markus Lantto, Ingebjørg Vatne, Rina Charlott Lindgren and Inger Emilie Solheim, and has work as its curatorial framework. Whereas the previous biennials took as their themes materiality and identity markers (2021) and spring water as an alternative metaphor for identity and history (2023, work is the antithesis of the spring which brings water to the surface of its own accord. Work, in its most basic definition, is a goal-oriented activity requiring patience and willpower. But the Kven word työ, which means work, contains within it the word yö, which means night. While previous biennials have focused on the ease of existence – in an inquisitive openness around what Kven identity and art are – this edition goes deeper into the intricacies of the mind and what it can mean to construct an identity.  

The biennial is organized by Kväänitaitheiliijat – the Kven Artists Association in collaboration with Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum. It will tour to Tromssa,/Tromsø, Alattio/Alta, and Longyearbyen, with a satellite exhibition in Vesisaari/Vadsø. The museum reflects the growing interest in Kven art and culture through various activities, such as the recent acquisition of several works by artists with Kven background. The Kven people are among the original people of the North Calotte and our region, and the traditional Kven areas stretch from the Bothnian Bay and northward to the Arctic Sea, from Lofotoen to the Kola Peninsula in the Northeast. In the wake of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s work, and an official apology for the injustice of harsh state-imposed Norwegianization, Kväänibiennaali 2025 will be the first ever exhibition at Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum to feature exclusively works by artists with a Kven background. It is a historic moment and Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum is proud to contribute to writing this chapter of Kven art history.  

Curators: 
Kven Artists Association by Maija Liisa Björklund, Liv Bangsund and Sylvia Henriksen
Lise Dahl (Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum) 

The exhibition is realized with support from:  

Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum 
Norsk Kulturfond 
Kulturdirekoratet 
Kulturrådet 
Norske Kunstforeninger 
Fritt Ord
Finnmark fylkeskommune
Arktisk Film Norge