As pandemic restrictions ease, royal visits overseas are beginning again and Norway’s Royal Court has just confirmed that Queen Sonja will open the exhibition “The Sámi Pavilion” during the international art exhibition in Venice on 21 April.
The exhibition highlights indigenous peoples’ contribution to contemporary art and the importance of artistic freedom of expression, diversity and uniqueness.
The Venice Art Biennale is one of the world’s most important showcases for contemporary art. The Sami Pavillion showcases three artists – Pauliina Feodoroff, Máret Ánne Sara and Anders Sunna from the Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish sides of Sámi. The artists focus on questions that many Sami and other indigenous peoples raise about self-determination as well as debating other areas including climate change and deforestation.
The Sami are considered an indigenous people by the Norwegian authorities. They are traditionally defined as living in a core area in the inner parts of the North Calotte and the fjord areas in northern Norway.
The exhibition is curated by the Office for Contemporary Art of Norway in collaboration with the Moderna Museet in Stockholm and the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma and The Finnish National Gallery in Helsinki. Queen Sonja will be present at an opening reception for the pavilion, which is arranged in collaboration with the Sami Parliamentary Council.
During the visit, the Queen of Norway will also meet artists who are represented in this year’s main exhibition called The Milk of Dreams. Curator Cecilia Alemani has selected three Norwegian artists for the main exhibition: Liv Bugge, Sandra Mujinga and Aage Gaup.
Queen Sonja is also due to attend a reception organized by the National Museum and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The purpose of the event is to create awareness of the opening of the new National Museum in June 2022 to international visitors to the festival.
The Queen will be accompanied by the Norwegian State Secretary in the Ministry of Culture and Gender Equality, Odin Adelsten Aunan Bohmann.
