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In I Händelsernas Centrum, artistic expressions and educational initiatives take place to create meetings and conversations about ongoing changes in our shared living spaces.

As a result of the industrial transition, Kiruna is undergoing a significant transformation that raises questions about our living environments and the importance of a vibrant arts and cultural life. With the Events Center, we want to explore how shared thinking and creation can contribute to positive changes in our public spaces.

At three locations in Kiruna, artworks by artists Jenny Nordmark, Daniel de Paula and Lena Stenberg are created and exhibited. In collaboration with the Child Culture Design program at the Swedish University of Design and Crafts (HDK-Valand), educational and co-creative activities are carried out together with children and young people in Kiruna.

Through the works and the educational initiatives in the project, we want to create meeting places and approach complex social structures in ways that can arouse interest, provide new insights and create engagement.

Participants and projects

Daniel de Paula (b. 1987, Brazil) reflects on the production of space as the reproduction of dominant abstract ideologies such as capital, ownership, labor and value. De Paula holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Fundação Armando Alvares Penteado in São Paulo and has also studied astrophysics and cultural geography. He has had solo exhibitions at Galeria Jaqueline Martins, BR (2023), LABOR Gallery, MX (2023), Galleria Francesca Minini, IT (2020), Kunsthal Gent, BE (2019) and has also been part of group exhibitions at Biennale de Lyon, FR, São Paulo Bienal, BR, and others.

Combustion / production, 2024 is a newly created site-specific artwork by Daniel de Paula for Kiruna's city space. For the work, the artist has fused three metals. One of the metals comes from the largest iron ore mine in Sweden, which is operated by the state-owned mining company LKAB in Kiruna. The second metal is melted down material from the original clock hands that were in the clock tower of the former city hall, Igloo, before the tower was moved to Kiruna's new center next to the new city hall, Kristallen, and received new hands. The third metal consists of recycled material from incinerators in Swedish crematoriums, which are usually disposed of to become new metal objects and where the surplus from the sale goes to the Swedish National Heritage Fund. The three metals have been fused together and molded into paving stones. The stones will become part of Kiruna's public city space when the work is installed in May 2024.

Jenny Nordmark (b. 1980, Kalix, Sweden) works with different modes of expression in art, architecture and scenography and explores topics related to climate issues, the local and the global, and the causes and consequences of human exploitation of natural resources. Nordmark has studied fine arts at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts and HDK-Valand – University of Art and Design, performing arts at Stockholm University of the Arts and architecture at Chalmers University of Technology. Her previous exhibitions include a regional art project with the Art Museum of the North, SE (2021), participation in a group exhibition at the Nordic Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, IT (2018) and an exhibition at the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts, SE (2015).

FOLKMAKT, 2024 is a site-specific installation designed by Jenny Nordmark for Kiruna's new city hall square and includes 12 doors saved from Kiruna's former city hall Igloo, which was demolished in 2019. The doors of the city hall are symbolic and represent the threshold between the room of power and the central hall that was open to all citizens. Despite the fact that the Igloo was designated a cultural monument in 2001 and a study was produced that showed the possibilities of dismantling and rebuilding parts of the house, the building was demolished due to the ongoing urban transformation in Kiruna.

The work is located next to the new city hall Kristallen, which was inaugurated in 2018. The clock tower, the original handles of the exterior doors and selected materials and building parts from the Igloo have been moved to Kristallen. The doors in the work FOLKMAKT have been placed next to the clock tower in a square shape that is reminiscent of the central hall in the old city hall. The doors have been stabilized using prefabricated elements commonly found on construction sites around Kiruna.

Jenny Nordmark adds a layer to the installation by painting different exterior doors on one side of the doors from the old city hall, inspired by the trompe l'œil technique and decorative painting commonly used in scenography. In March and May 2024, citizens are invited to gather and express their opinions on the events, challenges and opportunities that exist in Kiruna. Some of the documented depictions will be played in the entrance of Kristallen during the exhibition period by using one of the doors from the Igloo as a speaker to include the voices of citizens in the new city hall and become a place to gather around

Lena Stenberg (b. 1961, Kiruna) works primarily with three-dimensional works, sculptural objects, installations and photography. She often works from old documents and photographic archives, always with a connection to her own personal history. Since 1991, she has participated in group and solo exhibitions, sculpture parks and land art projects at, among others, ArkDes, Sami Centre for Contemporary Art, Bodö Art Society and many more.

Nestled in a small grove of trees in Kiruna’s former city centre is Lena Stenberg’s work Flyttzon, 2024, a site-specific installation that in a certain way constitutes an exciting contrast to its surroundings. Flyttzon is part of a series of works that Stenberg has developed in recent years. She explores the symbolic image of a traditional house by breaking up the main parts such as windows, doors, roof, floor and the overall materiality. The series examines how notions of home and the feeling of belonging are created through an interaction between architecture and the natural environment. Both of these are shaped by climatic and cultural conditions that in turn affect the lives and habits of the people who live there.

Kiruna is a city undergoing one of the world's most challenging urban transformation projects. A development driven by mining expansion and land settlements that gives themes such as home and belonging new and deeper meanings. Flyttzon is a figurative reference to Kiruna's typical wooden houses, but without roofs and with barred doors and windows. The reference becomes a poignant echo of the inherent complexity of this urban transformation, where the entire old city center is moved about 3 kilometers eastward, with the result that many buildings are relocated and dismantled.

A few meters from Flyttzon is Kiruna's oldest and largest wooden building, an iconic and architectural landmark: a place to gather, pray and express one's faith. Kiruna's historically significant church, built between 1909 and 1912, has been one of the most complicated buildings in the city's relocation. The church therefore remains in the city's former center, awaiting the planned move in 2025. In the same way that Kiruna struggles to embrace its future and past, the artwork embodies tensions that are exposed in an event where questions of development meet thoughts of preservation and memory.

Child Culture Design is a master's program at HDK-Valand that participates in the project I Händelsernas Centrum. During the project, students from the program carry out educational and co-creative activities together with children and young people in Kiruna. Together with children from three different schools in Kiruna, the two projects Andan and Wandering Objects have been developed.

During the inaugurations of both projects on May 23 and 24, 2024, the students will be on site and welcome everyone to meet and participate in creative activities.

Thursday, May 23
16.00 - 17.00
Inauguration of Andan
Location: Gruvstadsparken, on the site of the old City Hall

Andan is an art installation that comes to life with the help of wind and light, two resources that Kiruna has in abundance. The project aims to create a new meeting place for Kiruna's children and to make visible the light and wind that characterize its climate.

Friday 24 May
14.30-16.00
Opening of Wandering Objects
Location: Träddungen across the street from Stadshustorget

Wandering Objects is an interactive play sculpture that explores how the built environment can provide a place for children and young people to meet and explore. The children have contributed their visions of what the concept of “exploration” means to them.

Participating students from Child Culture Design:
Aria Lee (b. 1988, China), visual designer and illustrator.
Agata Drożdż (b. 1998, Poland), Bachelor of Science in Product and Graphic Design.
Benjamin Redin (b. 1999, Sweden), Bachelor of Science in Industrial Design.
Erica Schuetz (b. 1985, USA), educator and artist.
Fongyee Ng (b. 1993, Singapore), graphic designer and educator.
Milma Loeskow (b. 1982, Finland), interior designer and educator.
Rocío Soto (b. 1982, Mexico), architect and artist.
Sara Carvalho (b. 1998, Portugal), Bachelor of Science in Product and Interior Design.
Yulei Zhang (b. 1999, China), Bachelor of Science in Visual Communication Design and Master's degree at Tongji University.
Zala Seles (b. 1999, Slovenia), Bachelor of Science in Industrial Design.

I Händelsernas Centrum is a Leader project

I Händelsernas Centrum is a Leader project consisting of art experiences that contribute concrete examples of how culture and art affect our living environments, experiences of places and our well-being in ongoing and imminent changes. I Händelsernas Centrum is implemented with support from the European Union, the Swedish Board of Agriculture, Leader Tornedalen 2030, Kiruna Municipality and LKAB.