INTERPRT

INTERPRT is a non-governmental organisation based in Norway composed of architects, researchers, spatial designers, and developers. INTERPRT collaborates with international lawyers, civil society associations, journalists and scientists to produce evidence files, advocacy videos, online platforms, and exhibitions to fight impunity worldwide. The organisation pursues environmental justice through spatial and visual investigations to expose environmental destruction and associated human rights violations with extractive industries, land grabbing, nuclear weapons testing, and conflict.

On view during the opening (3rd March 2024) and closing programme (25 & 26 May 2024) of Luleåbiennalen 2024

Treacherous Journey, 2023 – ongoing
Video, 23:32’’

For Luleåbiennalen 2024, INTERPRT presents their ongoing work and research on the film Treacherous Journey through public events happening during the opening and closing programs of the biennial. This project serves as legal evidence supporting Sámi herders from the Jillen-Njaarke reindeer herding district in their legal action against the Øyfjellet wind power plant in Norway. INTERPRT's involvement in this legal action originated from their broader research initiative titled Colonial Present: Counter-Mapping The Truth and Reconciliation Commissions in Sápmi.

In Treacherous Journey, INTERPRT utilised a state-of-the-art 3D game-engine environment, integrated accurate geographical and environmental data, real-time weather data, GPS reindeer tracking data, and herders' videos . They conducted workshops with herders to understand the reindeer herding year and landscape, reconstructing the reindeer spring migration impacted by the wind farm. INTERPRT collaborates closely with Jillen-Njaarke reindeer herders, spatial ecologists from NINA, Sámi researchers, and activists on this project.

INTERPRT's practice attests to the potential for understanding architecture and spatial practices within an expanded field, transcending disciplinary and social boundaries. Serving as legal evidence in an ongoing court dispute A Treacherous Journey, shows how artistic and architectural practices can intervene in real-world processes such as legal proceedings. Thus, INTERPRT’s practice resonates with the curatorial framework of On the Threshold of 1:1, as it embodies a double ontology of the scale 1:1, situated at the threshold of representation and reality, operating both within and beyond the art world and the boundaries of architectural practice, engaging with other spheres of knowledge and modes of action. Additionally, the significance of the court case, occurring after the biennial's closure, offers an opportunity to delve further into this process and its implications.

Nabil Ahmed (b. 1978, Dhaka, Bangladesh) founder and co-director of INTERPRT. Ahmed is professor at The Trondheim Academy of Fine Art, in the faculty of Architecture and Design at Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NO, where he leads the Norwegian Research Council funded project “Climate Rights: Designing Visual Evidence for Climate Cases,” and is also on the advisory board of Stop Ecocide International.

Olga Lucko (b. 1985, Riga, Latvia), architect and co-director of INTERPRT. Lucko develops innovative visual and spatial methodologies and is technical lead for INTERPRT’s investigations that interrogates the aesthetic, political and legal challenges posed by environmental destruction that occur over spatial and temporal scales. She holds a degree in architecture from the School of Architecture at London Metropolitan University, UK.

INTERPRT’s project team also includes Esther Breslin, Filip Wesolowski, Tiago Patatas and Prerna Bishnoi. And some of INTERPRT’s collaborators include Protect Sápmi Foundation, Climate Counsel, Lex Collective, Forensic Architecture, International Lawyers for West Papua, Princeton Science and Global Security, Global Diligence, London Mining Network, Deep Sea Mining Campaign, Office for Contemporary Art, NO, Centre for Contemporary Art, SG, Biennale Warszawa, PL, Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, PL, and Arts Catalyst, UK.

Project team

Co-investigators: Nabil Ahmed and Olga Lucko
Lead architectural research: Olga Lucko
Research: Esther Breslin
3D development: Gwil Hughes and Mingxin Li
Drone footage: Ole Henrik Kappfjell
Architectural research and photogrammetry: Tiago Patatas
Satellite imagery analysis: Paulo J. Murillo-Sandoval
Camera: Marius Reed, Nikolas Flotsky, Dixin Wang and Prerna Bishnoi
Editing: Prerna Bishnoi
Editing assistance: Gustav Gundvalsen
Motion graphics: Filip Wesołowski
Voice over: Ernestine Boiling

Thanks to

Members of the Jillen Njaarke reindeer herding community and their legal team:
Torstein Appfjell, Ole Henrik Kappfjell
Pål Gude Gudesen, DALAN ADVOKATFIRMA
Berit Kristin Hætta, Nils Jonas Hætta Kappfjell, Ristin Marita Kappfjell,
Roy Martin Frydenlund
Knut Helge Hurum, FEND ADVOKATFIRMA DA
Martinus Suijkerbuijk
Manuela Panzacchi and Bernardo Brandão Niebuhr Dos Santos, Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA)
Vefsn Museum
Eva Maria Fjellheim

About INTERPRT

INTERPRT is based at Research hub, Trondheim Academy of Fine Art (KiT), Faculty of Architecture and Design, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).

Some of their collaborators include Forensic Architecture, International Lawyers for West Papua, Princeton Science and Global Security, Global Diligence, London Mining Network, Deep Sea Mining Campaign, Office for Contemporary Art, NO, Centre for Contemporary Art, SG, Biennale Warszawa, PL, Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, PL, and Arts Catalyst, UK.

Treacherous Journey was commissioned by Helsinki Biennial 2023.