Let the River Flow. The Sovereign Will and the Making of a New Worldliness

The exhibition 'Let the River Flow' was the fruit of three years of dialogue with artists, scholars, and other cultural peers and peoples across Sápmi, traversing four nation-states (Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia). The exhibition showcased the essential role of Sámi artists in the action, in particular the radical Mázejoavku: Sámi Dáiddajoavku (Sámi Artists’ Group, 1978-83), as well as the solidarity of non-Sámi counterparts. It presented rare historic works side-lined from the Nordic art historical canon, as well as material from the The Archives of the Protest Movement against the damming of the Áltá-Guovdageino water system and new contemporary commissions that explore the legacy of Áltá today. 'Let the River Flow' simultaneously claims and challenges the place of Sámi art amongst the new global, modernist, museologies dedicated to expand the canon of art history to a world-scale.