Utopiske signaler

An opportunity to learn more about the International Nyksund Project, brought back into focus through Nyksund Reloaded.

Since 2022, Nyksund Reloaded has reactivated and revisited a forgotten international eco-project in Northern Norway through archival practice, media art and film.

From 1984 to 1992, an eco-town was built in the former fishing village of Nyksund, initiated by students at Technische Universität in West Berlin. The International Nyksund Project (INP) was intended to become an international youth town, bringing together radical social pedagogy, experiments in eco-technology, architecture and cultural heritage. At a time marked by the Cold War and an emerging climate crisis, young people were to learn to take responsibility for their own future. Then the project collapsed, and its material legacy was dispersed.

Nyksund Reloaded explores how the ideas, visions and energy of INP—preserved in collected archival material and embodied in the places shaped by INP—can still be reactivated and inspire action and reflection in response to societal challenges. The project is being developed by the artist groups NODES with SOAP – Some Online Architecture Practice – and is led by media artists and filmmakers Katja Pratschke and Elisabeth Brun.

ROM for kunst og arkitektur is a partner in the further development of the project’s international collaboration. The project has also contributed “Utopiske signaler”, an interactive essay (https://metode.rom.no/articles/essay/utopian-signals-accidental-archivism-of-the-nyksund-ecotopia) published in ROM’s METODE vol. 3: Currents.

At Cinemateket on this day, you can meet Elisabeth Brun and the artists involved in the project, and see VR and film works from Nyksund Reloaded, including completed works, archive footage and works in progress, as well as sketches from a workshop with film art students from Filmkunstskolen i Kabelvåg.

Please note that the VR works are shown at Bølgen at 14.30 (https://forms.cloud.microsoft/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=nw7SEF7WUkaulOSTrPtoSnLuFvWEp_RPjmOknnx8EwNUNVZQS01CQkZOV0dSNjZPQ0dYNERWV1dSVy4u&route=shorturl) and 16.00 (https://forms.cloud.microsoft/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=nw7SEF7WUkaulOSTrPtoSnLuFvWEp_RPjmOknnx8EwNUNVlPTlNUWjdOVVkzM05XWk0yRVZDTDBOQi4u&route=shorturl). These screenings are free, but advance registration is required.

The illustrations are collages by Iryna Kliui and Katja Pratschke, using images from the International Nyksund Project.