Three residents head to Reindalen for Tarandus stay

Three residents and a project lead have headed out towards Reindalen and the Tarandus field-based residency, where the residents will develop a project called Tales from the Landscape, Artica Svalbard said on Monday 9 November. The group set out on Saturday.

The residents are social anthropologist Alexandra Meyer, architect Lilli Wickström and journalist Oriane Laromiguière. They are led by Samantha Dwinnel, the Tarandus Residency Project Lead.

The field cabin lies about 40 km south of Longyearbyen. After an unusually wet and warm October, the group was glad at the thought of skiing instead of hiking the long way there, Artica Svalbard said.

During the stay, the three will use the High Arctic tundra as a place for close observation, attentive listening and exchange. They will combine anthropology, architecture, journalism and artistic practice to watch and record the landscape, including the people and the other living things in it. They want to explore how different methods of studying and understanding a place can shed light on one another.

Care is at the heart of the project: how people attend to their surroundings, how they respond to environmental change, and what duties arise from life in a fragile world that is changing rapidly. Through listening, talk, observation, words and sound, the trio will examine whether research in science and in art can be a form of care. They plan to turn their experiences into stories for others.

Artica Svalbard describes the Tarandus Field-Based Residency as its joint programme for art and science, run with the University Centre in Svalbard. Based at the Tarandus field station, it pairs artists with scientists who carry out long-term studies of Svalbard reindeer.

Coverage: Artica Svalbard, news