Encounter is the working title of an art project that aims to both interpret the landscape, describe nature and is conceptually based on nature as social praxis, involving exhibitions, publications, video documentation. The geographical focus of the project is the geography and different environments in Nunavut Territory in The Canadian High Arctic. Local knowledge is essential to the project, partly because it is recognized that there is a critical need to preserve local information in general and also that Inuit knowledge of nature is the story of this particular landscape.

Lillehammer Art Museum, Norway 2003

Rogaland Art Museum, Norway 2004

Akureyri Art Museum, Iceland 2004

Katuaq Cultural Centre Greenland, ( Nuuk ) Greenland 2004

Nunatta Sunakkutaangit Museum, ( Iqaluit ) Canada 2005

Content:

The exhibition contain paintings, drawings, photography, videoinstallation and wall installed texts, different objects and documentary material.

For the project there will be produced a written documentation containing artist diary, catalogue on the exhibition, different writings by art historians, anthropologists and local writings. The book is scheduled for presentation October 2003, ( Richly illustrated, 400 pages. Production Delta Press. )

The project will in cooperation with Nordic Film and Tv / Uqsiq Communication produce an international documentary on the project, containing different aspects of the process, with interviews, documentation on the production, local filming in Nunavut Territory, introducing the area, following the whole process.

The project Encounter will be shown for the first time at Lillehammer Art Museum, Norway in 2003. The project is planned to travel over a period of 5 years to 5 countries. Through the process of producing the project, it will involve a large amount of institutions in different fields. Through the process of exhibiting the project, it will produce lectures and symposiums, focusing on nature, the effect of a natural environment, nature as social process, globalisation and different Arctic issues, also in connection to the development of Nunavut Territory.


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Collecting concrete information relating to specific places, allying himself with professionals in a variety of academic fields, and using a range of recording methods, Huse examines the idea of nature, with a concept of nature as social practice as his point of departure. Against a background of globalisation, Huse¹s project calls in not only Western thinking about the concept of nature and the conservation of local knowledge but also the critical and communicative potential of art.
Janeke Meyer Utne, Curator, Lillehammer Art Museum