Svea, June 2022 Image courtesy LPO Arkitekter
Lying at the head of Van Mijenfjord in the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, Sveagruva was one of the largest underground coal mines in Europe. In 2017, after almost 100 years of coal production, Store Norske Spitsbergen Kulkompani embarked on one of the most ambitious environmental projects in Norwegian history. Their goal - To end mining operations, remove all traces of mining activity and return the area to its natural state.
For Artica Listens 2022 we will host a public symposium at The Arctic University of Norway, Academy of Arts in Tromsø on 16th September 2022. Inviting leading experts from the Nordics in architecture, ecology, archaeology, history and the arts to discuss the Svea project and related issues.
How do you protect and restore nature and the landscape after extraction?
What was there before, how has it changed and what will be left behind?
How do you ‘clean-up’ without compromising cultural heritage?
What would it look like if we worked with nature and design to help solve some of these issues?
The guest speakers are:
Thomas Juel Clemmensen, Professor of Landscape Architecture at UiT The Arctic University of Norway and Head of the landscape architecture programme at the Academy of Arts in Tromsø.
New Mineral Collective (Tanya Busse and Emilija Škarnulytė) is a platform that looks at contemporary landscape politics to better understand the nature and extent of human interaction with the earth's surface.
Maria Jensen, is an Associate Professor in Arctic Geology at The University Centre in Svalbard and Head of the Arctic Geology Department.
LPO Architects’ Ingvild Sæbu Vatn, from Oslo, Norway, studied architecture at Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim and has lived in Svalbard permanently since 2011. And Lilli Wickström, from Oulu, Finland. Wickström studied at Royal Danish Academy - Architecture, Design, Conservation in Copenhagen with a master's degree in architecture in extreme environments with a focus on social sustainability, sustainable development and technological solutions.
Kjerstin Uhre, Associate Professor in landscape architecture at UiT, the Academy of Fine Arts in Tromsø and partner at Dahl & Uhre Architects, who have received awards for their urban and built projects.
Anatolijs Venovcevs, PhD candidate in the Institute for Archaeology, History, Religious Studies, and Theology at the UiT The Arctic University of Norway as part of the project Unruly Heritage: An Archaeology of the Anthropocene.
To book free tickets contact info@articasvalbard.no. The event will be recorded and shared on the Videos page in the weeks following the symposium.