Presentation of Saminiatures Collection

The conversation on 28^th October is attended by the co-ordinator and curator of the collection, Guja Mabellini, and by the three co-curators: for North America, Marlene Wisuri, President of the Sami Cultural Center of North America; for Russia, Tina Sovkina, President of the Sami Parliament of the Kola Peninsula; for the Scandinavian area (Sweden, Norway and Finland), Lars Nordby. Artist Heidi Perdatter Greiner Haaker will open the event with a performance of traditional Sami yoik songs.

Originally nomads and great reindeer farmers, fishermen and hunters, the Sami inhabit the vast icy stretches of the great north of Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Kola Peninsula (Russia) and form an ethnically, culturally and politically close transnational nucleus, with small communities also present in North America. An indigenous people who today are more than ever committed to defending their traditions and values,  ​​which for the Sami means facing the challenges of climate change and keeping pace with modernity without sacrificing their culture.

The 140 works in the collection reflect the solid bond between this people and its land: the luminosity of the ice and snow (which in the Sami languages ​​is said to have 180 definitions), the vivid and cheerful colours of their traditional dress, longs winters when the Arctic night reigns supreme, the perennial light of the boreal summer, their love for a flora and fauna to be respected and protected. A clear representation of a world, a culture, a geographical and mental landscape that invites us to stop and reflect seriously on where, and at what speed, we are going.