What does a map lack?
Arrival Studies at North Norwegian Art Centre
Torget 20, Svolvær
In collaboration with PRAKSIS, KORO, LoVe Utvikling and Nordland fylkeskommune.
All events are free. Unless otherwise stated, events are held in English.
Saturday 12 – Sunday 13 September
Open Studio – Lofoten Art Open
Saturday 11:00–21:00
Sunday 10:00–16:00
All ages · Drop in anytime
Visit Arrival Studies in their temporary research station/studio. The space presents research and work in progress, including an installation alongside drawings by students of Bjørn Tore Stavang at Kulturskolen, made in response to a place in Lofoten that means something to them. You're welcome to engage in crafting activities, talk with the group about their work, offer your perspectives on tourism's impact on Lofoten, or simply try some coffee and snacks brought by Arrival Studies from around the world.
From 11:00 on Saturday, there will be a short welcome introduction. From 18:00 on Saturday evening, North Norwegian Art Centre and Arrival Studies welcome you to a soup and wine gathering with tastes from Indonesia. Suitable for all ages, with non-alcoholic options available.
Tuesday 15 September
Walking Tour – The Living Atlas
17:00–19:00
Meeting point: North Norwegian Art Centre
Join Arrival Studies members Cynthia, Stephanie and Gatari as they follow a walking route recommended by a friend who lives in Lofoten. Along the way, participants will catalogue plant species, track rubbish left by humans, and reflect on how people move through this environment. As you walk, locals and visitors are invited to share their own memories, perspectives and relationship to the landscape.
Involves walking for up to 2 hours on nature trails and streets — comfortable footwear recommended, and it may suit older children better than very young ones.
Led by Cynthia Burgos López, Stephanie Florence and Gatari Surya Kusuma
Thursday 17 September
Workshop – A Map of Reciprocal Visiting
14:00–16:00
What do the places we visit offer us — and what do we owe to them? This workshop invites you to bring a story, photograph or memory of a place that has in some way affected you, whether as a visitor, a host, or both. Together, participants will build a collective visual and textual map from these contributions, exploring what it means to visit, inhabit and care for a place.
Bring your own material if you can — a photo, an object, a few written lines. If you email ahead, images can be printed for you in advance. No material to bring? You're still welcome to join and develop materials in the space.
Led by Gatari Surya Kusuma
Thursday 17 September
Public talk – Tourism, culture, heritage and wellbeing
18:00–19:30
What happens to a place's culture and sense of wellbeing when it becomes a destination? Drawing on interviews gathered across Lofoten, Associate Professor of tourism studies at Middlesex University, UK, Hyungyu Park explores this question alongside contributions from architect Don Lawrence and Balinese former hotel manager, Ketut Karya.
Friday 18 September
Podcast studio – Your say on Lofoten and Tourism
18:00–19:30
Join Arrival Studies for an on-the-record conversation about what people care about in Lofoten and how tourism is affecting it. You may take to the microphone for your say, or simply sit in and follow the conversation. Conversations are recorded as part of Arrival Studies' ongoing research; anyone taking part will be asked for their consent before recording begins.
Led by Anna Näumann
Sunday 20 September
Printing Workshop – The Logistics of Erasure
14:00–16:00 starting at North Norwegian Art Centre, Svolvær
Help create a living map of a Lofoten trail using dye from an invasive plant harvested locally. At an overused trailhead, we'll paint the natural dye onto paper, lay the wet sheets along the trail's edges, and add rubbish, twigs and other debris as stencils. The sun does the rest — bleaching the exposed paper white over the following days, while the debris leaves dark silhouettes behind. The result: a collective, sun-printed map of how much foot traffic — and litter — this trail really carries.
Led by Stephanie Florence, Cynthia Burgos López and Gatari Surya Kusuma
Tuesday 22 September
Mapping and Conversation – Architecture, Planning and Tourism
18:00–19:30
How do architecture and planning shape — and get shaped by — tourism pressures and local values in Lofoten? Architect Don Lawrence discusses planning processes, offering a perspective on how things might be done differently, and inviting the audience to bring their own observations of how building and planning decisions are changing the places they know.
Led by Don Lawrence
Saturday 26 September
Zine workshop – A Collective Zine of Lofoten
12:00-14:00
Lofoten kulturhus and North Norwegian Art Centre
What does Lofoten look like through your own eyes — or your family's? Bring a photo, postcard, letter or keepsake from your own archive, and cut, collage and print your way into a shared zine, weaving personal stories and everyday moments into a collective record of Lofoten.
No material to bring? There's a printer in the space, or you can draw, paint and collage using what's provided.
Led by Gabriella Manurung
Saturday 26 September
Open Studio – Closing gathering
18:00–20:00
A space to thank everyone who has contributed to the project so far. Sharing the research in progress and reviewing the findings, questions and perspectives that have emerged.
Further events may be announced.
Do you live in Lofoten? Are you visiting, for a holiday or work? We’d like to hear your thoughts about the area and tourism’s impacts on it. How does it affect this place, its communities and its environment? In your view, what needs to happen next?
Located in the gallery of North Norwegian Art Centre, this pop-up research station and exhibition is run by Arrival Studies, a recently-formed, internationally-based collective of artists and researchers who investigate the impacts, opportunities and questions tourism generates in and for its host locations. This September, alongside travelling across Lofoten to talk with people directly, the team is running it as a follow-up to a year of earlier online meetings with Lofoten stakeholders — inviting people to drop in and share their views and experiences of Lofoten tourism.
The Arrival Studies team will feed what they learn into a dynamic, freely accessible public resource: a living, changing atlas of people’s views of Lofoten tourism. What strengths and opportunities does the area’s tourism offer? What are its weaknesses? What threats does it pose? What do the archipelago’s residents and visitors most care about, and how would they like the area to develop?
The research process hopes to cover everything: planning processes and regulations, visitor policies, housing and infrastructure issues, seasonal work, landscape, ecology, culture and heritage. It will ask who benefits from the region’s tourism, who carries the cost, and what alternative models of tourism might be possible or desirable.
The idea is simple: the more people who share their views, the more fully representative and useful the resource becomes. Whatever your age, job or interests, and whether your Lofoten roots run deep or you are just passing through, your perspective represents valuable data. Please come and share it: for example by stopping for a coffee and chat with the friendly people of Arrival Studies, or using materials provided in the gallery to write, draw or upload information, opinions and ideas. Information about the programme will be released.
Beyond the gallery
If you have something to show the team or a perspective to share, wherever in Lofoten you are, please get in touch. hello@arrivalstudies.org / Message us on Instagram @arrivalstudies.
About Arrival Studies
Featuring multi-disciplinary expertise in community theory and practice, art, design, research and education, the Arrival Studies team is able to apply diverse research methods to its enquiries into tourism’s realities, potentials and problems. Listening first is key: it aims to pass the mike to as many different people as possible, from young people and seasonal workers to planners and policymakers, and ensure that the views of those most affected by decision-making processes are heard and acted on. Its flexible approaches, and its position outside existing local networks of business and politics, enable it to ask open questions without the constraints, or expectations, that come with a stake in the outcome.
Members include: Charlotte Teyler (Norway), Cynthia Burgos López (Puerto Rico), Don Lawrence (Norway), Elise Hoebeke (Belgium), Gabriella Manurung (Indonesia), Gatari Surya Kusuma (Indonesia), Hyungyu Park (South Korea/UK), Ketut Karya (Indonesia), Nicholas J. Jones (UK/Norway), Stephanie Florence (Canada), Truls Ramberg (Norway) and Victor Mutelekesha (Zambia).