NATUR - North Atlantic Tales

Project

27 Mar

UK, Denmark, Norway & Iceland
2018 - 2020

The NATUR project was instigated as part of the European Union’s Year of Cultural Heritage and built on our work with Nordic partners to connect artists and archives with one another and the UK to creatively explore shared stories, culture and heritage. The project has commissioned and delivered a series of new artworks, across music, visual and performing arts by activating archives and promoting our shared culture through major festival presentations. The NATUR project has established a platform enabling artists and archives to work together to connect human stories and memories, linking the people of Denmark, Iceland, Norway and the UK.

So far the project has interrogated 7 themes through the archives in each country that shape and continue to forge a shared Northern identity (folklore and language, merchants, fisheries, industrialisation, conflict, oil and women's history). We invited artists and communities to work with archivists and collections in order to activate stories that connect our sense of shared history. Over 2 years 10 artists undertook bilateral residencies between their home country and a partner city. Working with archives, museums, the creative community and the public they have created new works that tell our North Atlantic Tales. Over this period we delivered five collaborative workshops focusing on research, skills exchange and development across all 4 countries.

Is he on the line - photographer - Curated Place.JPG

Curated Place worked with partners SICC Productions (Manchester, UK), Einkofi Productions (Eyrarbakki, Iceland), SAMSKAB (Aarhus, Denmark) and Elefant (Stavanger, Norway) to uncover and celebrate the stories that lie between archives held in each country. By enabling artists from each country to undertake residencies with overseas partners we were able to trace the stories that fell between the gaps - where one set of archives, memories and tale ends and another, over the water, begins. Establishing the NATUR network through both narrative and working partnerships enabled archives to more efficiently work with creative industries and support communities in accessing and creating identity from the shared heritage in these deeply connected countries.