The EU sanctions – consequences for the border area between Norway and Russia and the Barents Cooperation. How can it be that trade and business are blooming between EU Poland and Kaliningrad Russia? Representatives from Kaliningrad and Poland working with cross-border cooperation will be present at Talking Barents Transborder Café.

This Transborder Café is made in cooperation with the Norwegian Barents Secretariat.

Moderator:

Trude Pettersen and Atle Staalesen (BarentsObserver)

Panel: 

Cecilie Hansen/Tove Alstadsæther (Mayor/deputy of Sør-Varanger Municpality)

Pia Svensgaard (Secretary General at the Norwegian Barents Secretariat)

Geir Thorbjørnsen (Barel AS)

Mikahail Noskov (Russian General Consul Kirkenes)

Aleksei Ignatev (Program and Development Director Kaliningrad Regional Economic Development Agency)

Music:

The Asketics

The Asketics are a Karelian trio with a varied mucial expression; from atmospheric ambient and cool jazz to dynamic drum'n'bass and hard core.

Transborder Café (TC) is an informal concept, a theme based think tank which brings together experts by involving the audience in an open discussion related to current political and cultural issues enriched with contributions by artists, politicians and researchers.

Martial arts, rice, totalitarianism, one-child-families? Something more? China's art market has become one of the world's most important in the past decade and shows how business accompanies cultural development. The future of the North-West passage with vessels, but also cruise liners going from China to Europe might also offer new possibilities for tourism and investments in Kirkenes, combined with environmental challenges.

What challenges does China bring for our border area? Does Russia, as China`s neighbouring country, have more in common with China than Norway, and can we learn from this? Can the local tourism industry on both sides of the border profit?

Many of the well-known exhibition spaces around the world are presenting Chinese contemporary art. Chinese art could be a tool to develop our knowledge and understanding of the new neighbor since the expression tools of Chinese art are deeply grounded in the tradition and develop this approach in a very distinct way.

Moderator:

Trine Hamran (journalist and documentarist)

Panel:

Lise Yuen (artist)

Arild Vollan (specialist on Chinese-Russian relations)

Kåre Tannvik (Kirkenes snowhotel)

Li Xiaofei (artist)

Sergey Balmasov (Head of the Centre for High North Logistics)

Rune Rafaelsen (Senior advisor at the Norwegian Barents Secretariat)

Music:

Sturle Dagsland

The musical input of the Transborder Café is a performance by Sturle Dagsland, an experimental musician who presents an innovative musical approach. Qurious about Sturle Dagsland? Here's a taste of his live performance in Stavanger Concert Hall.

Transborder Café (TC) is an informal concept, a theme based think tank which brings together experts by involving the audience in an open discussion related to current political and cultural issues enriched with contributions by artists, politicians and researchers.

Fish farming is controversial. It engages us, because fishing is part of our national heritage. Norway is built along our extensive coastline and our rich sea. Since the late 1970s, aquaculture has grown dramatically, and Norway is currently the world's largest exporter of farmed salmon. Aquaculture creates jobs, especially important for small communities along the coast, and at the same time, fish farming is a primary resource, a natural resource that should be never-ending, as opposed to oil and gas.

Both the government and the fish industry agree that farming should be maintained and further developed as a sustainable industry. Still critics are afraid resources will end and that today we deplete the fish resources. Concerns around the waste from fish farms, sea lice, escaped farmed salmon, the challenges linked to aquaculture are numerous. Meanwhile the health question concerning farmed fish appears more often. Salmon is a strong historical symbol of Norway and symbolizes the free, strong and healthy fish. Is farmed fish as healthy as wild fish? How much do we know? How should you deal with this? What is correct? Is there a solution here? We invite you to the debate!

During the Transborder Café, the artists Bo Wallström, Trine Falch and Mona Solhaug will comment on the discussion with Laksespelet, a visual audio drama of tragic self-examination. When the salmon is not a salmon, what do we become when eating it? Satisfied? Unsatisfied? Inhuman?

Moderator:

Thomas Nilsen (BarentsObserver)

Panel:

Oddbjørn Jerijervi (general manager Finnmarksrøya/Kirkenes Charr)

Morten Strøksnes (journalist and writer)

Mikhail Kuznetsov (Russian Salmon)

TBA

Music: Ailu Valle

The Sami rapper Ailu Valle is the musical input of the Transborder Café. Valle is a poet and musician and reflects on the relationship between modern economy models and the traditional way of life up North, human impact on nature and landscape and offers thereby another and Sami voice for the discussion.

Photo: Saga Skiftesvik

Transborder Café (TC) is an informal concept, a theme based think tank which brings together experts by involving the audience in an open discussion related to current political and cultural issues enriched with contributions by artists, politicians and researchers.