Visitors from the US and Canada have already flocked to the exhibition, and now it will be permanent in Granö in Västerbotten. "It's excellent," says Britta Marakatt-Labba.
"It's fantastic that you're relocating to smaller places; it keeps the region alive," she says enthusiastically.
Her art was recently exhibited extensively at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm. Here she is showing four works: sculptures in bronze and stone, as well as embroidery that touches on events in the Kiruna area. In "Resistance" Marakatt-Labba has embroidered people who are trying to stop the companies' mining and graphite extraction.
"The right side is bright with red and yellow, so there is hope," she says.
Red thread
Resistance also characterizes the statue "The Ancient Mother", which depicts a woman wearing a Sami horn hat. The work has been exhibited in a two-meter-high version on the High Line promenade in New York, among other places.
"The hat was banned because no one was allowed to wear the horn, the work of the devil. But the women were clever, they turned the hat backwards so no one could see that they were still wearing it."
Overall, Britta Marakatt-Labba sees indigenous artists depicting similar experiences based on historical oppression.
"The boarding schools, the Swedishization and not being allowed to speak their own languages - it follows like a common thread."
Climate change
Several artists work with materials from Arctic animals, such as reindeer and seals. Many are also strongly affected by how the climate is changing, which shapes their art.
In her own region, Britta Marakatt-Labba notes that the leaves are now bursting out earlier.
"In spring you can't go where you used to because you don't know if the ice will hold. Hunters, fishermen and I, because I'm married to a reindeer herder, are the ones who notice the biggest changes."
Facts: Arctic Highway
The exhibition opened on February 3, 2024 at the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis and has been shown in New York, Seattle and Whitehorse, Canada, among other places. It will open on June 19, 2026, in Granö in the municipality of Vindeln.
Included in the exhibition from Sápmi: Matti Aikio, Tomas Colbengtson, Gunvor Guttorm, Marja Helander, Dan Jåma, Laila Susanna Kuhmunen, Britta Marakatt-Labba, Olof Marsja and Máret Ánne Sara.
From Alaska: Sonya Kelliher-Combs and from Canada Meryl McMaster and Maureen Gruben.
