Barents Spektakel is a cultural-political cocktail with contemporary art, performances, literature, theatre, film, seminars and concerts as ingredients, spiced with current issues related to the Barents Region and the High North in general.
The slogan for Barents Spektakel 2015 is Arctic Take Away and reflects upon different ways of viewing the Arctic. Mining industry, oil and gas, food export, drilling, digging and rock blasting – it’s become a part of our history. Is the Arctic a perpetual source for outsiders to dig in? For how long? On the other hand, the Arctic has traditions for transporting, taking out and bringing back, moving, travelling - borderlessness. Until the early 1800s this area was a borderless zone. The people living here moved freely, bringing their culture and traditions with them, taking out what was needed, giving back whatever they had.
Barents Spektakel is an annual festival curated and produced by Pikene på Broen.
Pikene på Broen is a company of curators and producers, based in Kirkenes, northeast of Norway, close to the national borders of Russia and Finland. Pikene på Broen is named after Edvard Munch`s painting and was established in 1996 after the opening of the Russian-Norwegian border and establishment of the Barents Region. By their art projects Pikene på Broen creates meeting places and builds bridges across national borders and art genres.