Joar Nango
Girjegumpi
The Nordic Countries Pavilion at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia
The Sámi Architecture Library travels to Venice
For over fifteen years, architect and artist Joar Nango has been assembling an archive of books about issues relevant to Indigenous architecture. This year Nango, alongside a team of collaborators, unfolds Girjegumpi: The Sámi Architecture Library—a structure, social space, and source of knowledge around architecture in Sápmi—at the Nordic Countries Pavilion at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia.
Girjegumpi is a spatialisation of conversations and research initiated by Joar Nango over two decades of practice at the intersection of architecture and art. As an itinerant, collective library, the project has evolved and expanded with site-specific adaptations as it has travelled to different locations in Sápmi and the broader Nordic region. This journey involves multiple collaborations, including artists and craftspeople such as Katarina Spik Skum, Anders Sunna, Ken Are Bongo, and Anders Rimpi, among others.
Central to Girjegumpi is the archive that it contains and shares – from rare titles to contemporary books, the collection of more than 500 editions embraces topics such as Sámi architecture and design, traditional and ancestral building knowledge, activism, and decoloniality. This archive also comprises artworks, materials, design details, and found objects. As a gathering space, it hosts large groups of people. As a reading room, it offers an environment for solitary study and reflection. As a critical project, it builds spaces for Indigenous imagination.
Nomadic by design, Girjegumpi is a living project addressing the relevance of Indigenous culture in architectural discourse and construction today: the importance of collaborative work, building techniques and use of resources in rapidly changing climate conditions, the use of locally grounded material flow and sensitive approaches to landscapes and nature. It highlights the architect’s position towards a more polyphonic understanding of the world.
The Nordic Countries Pavilion, designed by Sverre Fehn in 1962, was conceived to represent forms of cooperation across the Nordic countries. In this context, Girjegumpi opens to an international audience to continue building bodies of knowledge, collaboration and solidarity that transcend national boundaries.
Girjegumpi‘s collaborators include, among others:
Håvard Arnhoff, Ken Are Bongo, Petter Bratland, Stefano Crosera + Margherita Pasqualato (Cantiere Daniele Manin), Mathias Danbolt, Ole-Henrik Einejord, Astrid Fadnes, Jenni Hakovirta, Eirin Hammari, Elin Haugdal, Petri Henriksson, Tone Huse, Robert Julian Hvistendahl, Iver Jåks + Jon Ole Andersen, Anne Kare Kemi, Annik Kristiansen Hagen, maka design, Grete Johanna Minde, Karen Inger Anne Nango, Nils John Nango, Anne Henriette Nilut, Ole Thomas Nilut, Raisa Porsanger, Tobias Aputsiaq Prytz, Anders Rimpi, Katrine Rugeldal, Wimme Saari, Sámi Architecture Dictionary Group, Arne-Terje Sæther, Katarina Spik Skum, Mary Ailonieida Sombán Mari, Četil Somby, Anders Sunna, Anna-Stina Svakko, Eystein Talleraas, Petter Tjikkom, Magnus Antaris Tuolja
Collaborating institutions
Ájtte, Arctic Arts Festival – Festspillene i Nord-Norge, Sámi Dáiddaguovddáš (SDG), RDM – Sámiid Vuorká-Dávvirat, UiT – The Arctic University of Norway
Girjegumpi
The word Girjegumpi is derived from two Northern Sámi words: ‘Girji’, meaning book, and ‘Gumpi’ – a small mobile reindeer herder cabin on sledges, often pulled by a snowmobile. This wordplay refers to a library, an archive, and the construction in which these are stored and transported.
Girjegumpi has unfolded in many locations since 2018. When it is not travelling, it is based at the Sámi Dáiddaguovddáš (SDG – Sámi Centre for Contemporary Art) in Kárášjohka/Karasjok. A sister version of Girjegumpi is held by the National Gallery of Canada in Odàwàg/Ottawa.
2018: Hárstták/Harstad, Arctic Arts Festival; Márkomeannu, Sámi Culture and Music Festival; Kárášjohka/Karasjok, Sámi Dáiddaguovddáš (Sámi Centre for Contemporary Art)
2019: Dálvvadis/Jokkmokk, Jokkmokk’s Market; Jiellevárri gielda/Gällivare; Odàwàg/Ottawa, National Gallery of Canada
2020: Bergen, Bergen Kunsthall; Kárášjohka/Karasjok, Sámi Dáiddaguovddáš (Sámi Centre for Contemporary Art); Virtual Girjegumpi, ArkDes
2021: Hárstták/Harstad, Arctic Arts Festival; Kárášjohka/Karasjok, Sámi Dáiddaguovddáš (Sámi Centre for Contemporary Art); Oslo, Nasjonalmuseet Norway
2022: Helsinki, Kiasma, ARS22; Canadian Centre for Architecture, ᐊᖏᕐᕋᒧᑦ / Ruovttu Guvlui / Towards Home; Kárášjohka/Karasjok, Sámi Dáiddaguovddáš (Sámi Centre for Contemporary Art)
2023: Nordic Countries Pavilion, 18th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia; following Venice, Girjegumpi will continue to travel
Joar Nango
Joar Nango (born in 1979, Áltá) is an architect and artist based in Romsa/Tromsø, Norway. His work is rooted in Sápmi – the traditional Sámi territory covering the northern regions of Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Kola Peninsula in Russia. Through building, site-specific interventions, design collaborations, photography, publications and video, Nango’s work explores the role of Sámi and Indigenous architecture and craft in contemporary thought.
Nango’s work, including the long-term project Girjegumpi, is nurtured by parallel collaborations with other artists, architects, and craftspeople. Among many other initiatives across two decades of practice, he is a founding member of the architecture collective FFB (2010). Currently, he is collaborating with choreographer and director Elle Sofe Sara on a dance performance with Carte Blanche, premiering at the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet. Following a winning proposal in 2021, Nango alongside Snøhetta, Econor, and 70°N arkitektur are designing the new Sámi National Theatre and Sámi High School and Reindeer Husbandry School in Guovdageaidnu/Kautokeino, currently under construction.
Trained at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim, Nango graduated in Architecture in 2008. Since then, his work has been presented at documenta 14, Bergen Kunsthall, Nasjonalmuseum Oslo – Architecture, Canadian Centre for Architecture, Sámi Dáiddaguovddáš (Sámi Centre for Contemporary Art), and Kiasma.
Seminar: Huksenvieru Sátnegirje / Sámi Dictionary of Architecture
About the project
Huksenvieru sátnegirji (Sámi Dictionary of Architecture)—HUSA—is an interdisciplinary research project and network that is investigating concepts and knowledge of architecture in the Sámi languages. The project was initiated in 2022 by Girjegumpi: The Sami Architecture Library in cooperation with the research group Worlding Northern Art (WONA) at UiT – The Arctic University of Norway.
The Sámi concept of architecture is understood as more than the design and construction of buildings and installations. It encompasses perceptions of landscape, climate adaptation, site-specific qualities, social organisation, crafts (duodji), aesthetics, and world views.
The project adopts a diachronic perspective and studies architectural concepts of known and unknown origins. Further, we elaborate on the potential meanings of historical and contemporary Sámi architecture. Our main objective is to investigate Sámi concepts of architecture in their broadened senses and to produce a dynamic dictionary in different formats.
The plans of HUSA focus on the production of Sámi architectural dictionaries and organisation of lectures, seminars and workshops in Sápmi and elsewhere.
Learn more about the project here.
Seminar in Venice
In collaboration with Joar Nango, the project Huksenvieru sátnegirji (HUSA) will hold a public event in Girjegumpi in the Nordic Countries Pavilion on June 12-15, 2023.
Preliminary Schedule
June 13: internal workshop in Girjegumpi at the Nordic Countries Pavilion, Venice
June 14, 12.00-14.00: presentations held in English by members of HUSA:
- Harald Gaski
- Sunniva Skålnes
- Nils Oskal
- Ánne Márjá Guttorm Graven
- Lene Antonsen
June 14, 14.00-15.00: roundtable discussion held in English
Practical Information
Up to date information about this seminar and future events as part of HUSA can be found on UiT – The Arctic University of Norway’s website.
The seminar is free of charge but requires the purchase of an entrance ticket to La Biennale.
Girjegumpi at the Nordic Countries Pavilion
About the Biennale
The International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia takes place every two years in Venice, Italy. The Nordic Countries Pavilion officially represents Finland, Norway and Sweden. The 18th International Architecture Exhibition, which will take place between 20 May and 26 November 2023, is curated by Lesley Lokko.
In 2023, ArkDes is commissioner and Nasjonalmuseum (Oslo, Norway) and Arkkitehtuurimuseo (Museum of Finnish Architecture, Helsinki, Finland) are deputy commissioners.
In 2018, Eero Lundén presented Another Generosity. In 2021, Helen & Hard presented What We Share. In 2022, during the Biennale Arte, the Nordic Countries Pavilion presented the exhibition entitled The Sámi Pavilion with a project commissioned by Office for Contemporary Art Norway (OCA) with Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma / The Finnish National Gallery and Moderna Museet, featuring the artists Pauliina Feodoroff, Máret Ánne Sara, and Anders Sunna.
Girjegumpi’s collaborators
Håvard Arnhoff, Ken Are Bongo, Petter Bratland, Stefano Crosera + Margherita Pasqualato (Cantiere Daniele Manin), Mathias Danbolt, Ole-Henrik Einejord, Astrid Fadnes, Jenni Hakovirta, Eirin Hammari, Elin Haugdal, Petri Henriksson, Tone Huse, Robert Julian Hvistendahl, Iver Jåks + Jon Ole Andersen, Anne Kare Kemi, Annik Kristiansen Hagen, maka design, Grete Johanna Minde, Karen Inger Anne Nango, Nils John Nango, Anne Henriette Nilut, Ole Thomas Nilut, Raisa Porsanger, Tobias Aputsiaq Prytz, Anders Rimpi, Katrine Rugeldal, Wimme Saari, Sámi Architecture Dictionary Group, Arne-Terje Sæther, Katarina Spik Skum, Mary Ailonieida Sombán Mari, Četil Somby, Anders Sunna, Anna-Stina Svakko, Eystein Talleraas, Petter Tjikkom, Magnus Antaris Tuolja
Collaborating institutions
Ájtte
Arctic Arts Festival – Festspillene i Nord-Norge
Sámi Dáiddaguovddáš (SDG)
RDM – Sámiid Vuorká-Dávvirat
UiT – The Arctic University of Norway
Girjegumpi is a project first initiated in 2018 by Joar Nango and Festspillene i Nord-Norge. When not travelling, Girjegumpi is hosted by Sámi Dáiddaguovddáš (SDG) in Kárášjohka/Karasjok.
Team
Commissioners
Kieran Long, ArkDes
Carina Jaatinen, The Museum of Finnish Architecture
Stina Høgkvist, The National Museum of Norway
Curators
Carlos Mínguez Carrasco, ArkDes
James Taylor-Foster, ArkDes
Project Manager
Luba Kuzovnikova, ArkDes
Production Support in Venice
M+B Studio
eiletz ortigas | architects
Team at ArkDes
Johanna Fogel, Stefan Mossfeldt, Elisabet Norin, Emma Weinerhall, Maria Östman
Hosts/Librarians
Pia Karttunen, Laura Lucchini
Press releases
Download the press release in North Sámi
Download the press release in English
Download the press release in Swedish
Download the press release in Italian
Images for press may be found here