Kvae & Bark - research process for 'det gode liv'. Photo credit: Pikene på Broen

The project received funding because of:
The project has very well developed content, progress plan and budget. The actors have previously carried out similar art projects of high class. Confirmed participants are serious and important voices from the art field. The project problematises topics that are relevant to all countries in the Northern region. Therefore, Nordic relevance, artistic concept and participants are strongly grounded in the project.

The applicant wrote about the project:
det gode liv is a networking, knowledge exchange, and experience-sharing artistic research and contemporary art project embedded within the framework of Barents Spektakel 2021.

The project takes its inspiration from the publication 'Global Warming and the Sweetness of Life: A Tar Sands Tale' (2018) by Matt Hern and Am Johal, where the authors investigate philosopher Giorgio Agamben’s invocation of Alexandre Kojeve’s phrase 'la dolce vita'.

det gode liv will extend these ideas of ‘the sweetness of life’ and will strive to reveal moments of their presence within Nordic contexts, what can be learned from resonant sámi perspectives towards land use, and how these conversations relate to the environment and activities of oil extraction in the north.

The project aims to explore the specific Nordic dimension of ‘the sweetness of life’ as a concept in the context of the wider complex issues such as global warming, fossil-fuel extraction, restricted mobility, geopolitical tension, and the deeper questions that relate to the societal changes that are taking place during/following the Covid-19 pandemic. Through the project, lesser-told Nordic histories, traditions, and cultures, as well as new artistic and material approaches will be uncovered in connection to the conceptual idea of the sweetness of living.