Lada Suomenrinne’s art project Emergency Weather will be on display as part of the festival exhibition at Barents Spektakel in Kirkenes.
Emergency Weather is a visual narrative about returning to a remote village — one that is home. This narrative is woven together by the presence of ancestors, the shifting weather, and the emergency of knowledge. The images explore the isolation of information, seeking to reveal what the landscape itself can communicate. Photography serves as a sacred, ceremonial practice — a weather diary that becomes a metaphor for knowledge lost or transformed by time, as the climate itself shifts.
About Lada Suomenrinne
Lada Suomenrinne was born in Northern Russia but has lived most of their life in the northernmost point of Finland, Sápmi. There Suomenrinne was adopted by their stepfather into his Sámi family. The roots of their work are in cultural identity and belonging; Suomenrinne explores their relationship to the heritage and climate crisis through the body-land-trauma. They photograph at the end of the world.
Suomenrinne holds a master’s degree in photography from Aalto University and their works have been exhibited internationally, including group exhibitions Even Better than a Real Thing – Whitney Biennale (2024), Gálgat mohkiid, duogŋat gokčasiid – Kunstnerforbundet (2024), Earthworks – Bergen Kunsthall (2024), Søsterskap – Les Rencontres d’Arles (2023), and Landscapes of Belonging – Kindl Berlin (2022). Their works are also included in prestigious collections such as those of the Finnish Museum of Photography and the Finnish State Art Commission. Read more about the artist on their website.
About Barents Spektakel
Barents Spektakel is an annual festival in Kirkenes that builds cultural bridges across real and imaginary borderlines. Arranged by Pikene på Broen, the four-day festival becomes a meeting place for everyone with an interest in art, the cultures, and contemporary issues related to the High North. The 2025 edition will be held on 20–23 February and explores the theme of “Remote Control”. Read more about the festival on their website.
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Suomenrinne´s works are part of a production and residency collaboration and initiative from the Finnish-Norwegian Cultural Institute (FINNO). In the autumn of 2024, the artist was invited to participate in the Artist-in-Residence (AiR) program hosted by the curator collective Pikene på Broen in Kirkenes.
The residency opportunity and the project Emergency Weather are part of the pARTir initiative funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU. pARTir is a collaborative initiative of the Finnish cultural and academic institutes, promoting sustainable international mobility in 2024 and 2025.