Art Center Luleå is the biggest exhibition venue of the biennial and is located in Kulturens Hus, Luleå, which, besides the art gallery, also houses a library, restaurant, concert hall, café and conference rooms. The building was finished in 2007, designed by Tirsén and Aili architects. It is centrally located by the northern harbour of Luleå. In the three galleries the Luleå Biennial presents its largest exhibition with 14 artists.

Artists:
Entrance: Chto Delat?
Gallery 1: Ingela Johansson, Charlotte Posenenske,
Cara Tolmie & Susanna Jablonski, Isak Sundström, Tommy Tommie, Måns Wrange
Gallery 2: Apostolos Georgiou, Iris Smeds, Mats Wikström Gallery 3: Aage Gaup,
Didem Pekün with KHORA Balcony: Erik Thörnqvist

Norrbottens museum is a county museum that focuses on the Northbothnian cultural heritage, both historical and contemporary. Collections and exhibitions are based on current issues, historical stories, culture and society and are aimed at all ages. Norrbottens museum’s activities also extend to other places in the northern part of the country where the meeting with nature and cultural history takes place outside of the classic context of the museum. The multicultural history of Norrbotten is reflected in the museum’s rich collections and archives that consist of thousands of objects. The archive is available to the public and contains publications, photographs and documents about the county’s natural and cultural history, then and now. The museum also houses a café and a museum shop where Northbothnian craftsmanship and literature are available for purchase. On the museum’s entrance floor artist Erik Thörnqvist’s new commission, Big Science, Small Country will be on view.

Galleri Syster is an artist-run gallery that opened in 2006. The gallery functions as a meeting place for art, conversations, experiments and new ideas. Since the beginning, the focus has been on Swedish contemporary art, which they have created a new scene for in Norrbotten. In recent years, the gallery has also broadened its programme to include international artists. Galleri Syster rests on feminist foundations, working in parallel to the larger institutions. For the last five years, they have also run Galleri Lillasyster, a space for young people interested in learning about and discussing contemporary art and meeting with professional artists. At Galleri Syster paintings by the artist Augusta Strömberg (1866~1954) are for the first time exhibited in a greater art context, side by side with contemporary works by Susanna Jablonski and Ana Vaz.

The Luleå county prison later Kronohäktet and today Vita Duvan, is a former prison centrally located on Stationsgatan in Luleå. The prison was built between 1852-1855 and opened in June 1856. Vita Duvan [The White Dove] is a nine-sided polygon with 17 cells distributed across two floors. It is Sweden’s only Panopticon, a style of prison architecture developed by the British philosopher Jeremy Bentham in the late 18th century to impart a sense of invisible omnipresence. The Swedish Prison and Probation Service left the building in 1979, and since then it has been empty for a number of years. At Vita Duvan the Luleå Biennial and the Swedish Arts Council present Maria W Horn’s new sound piece Vita Duvans Lament.

Havremagasinet is a regional art centre in Boden established in 2010. Six stories tall, the building used to be the central storage for the northern military region from the year 1913 to 1950, and supplied the units in Boden, Kiruna and Umeå with food. The building, which is the largest in Boden, was design by the architect Erik Josephson. Havremagasinet presents a wide exhibition programme spanning local cultural history, Nordic and international contemporary art. This year, the Luleå Biennial spreads across two floors with seven artists, in a group show covering themes of subjectification, collectivity, memory and renewal. Artists: Beatrice Gibson, Susanna Jablonski, Birgitta Linhart, Fathia Mohidin, Charlotte Posenenske, Tommy Tommie and Danae Valenza.

The Silver Museum in Arjeplog contains seven permanent displays and the surgery of Einar Wallquist, the museum’s founder. Across three floors, stories from life in the mountainous region are told, from the end of the last ice age until today. The museum’s crowning glory is the largest collection of Same silver in the world. In a way, the Silver Museum represents Arjeplog’s collective memory. The Luleå Biennial integrates a number of contemporary art works into the permanent exhibition, staging a fascinating encounter between these very different types of objects. On display are sculptural works by Santiago Mostyn and Erik Thörnqvist as well as a video piece by Christian Nyampeta. They engage with the ambivalent role of the museum as both the custodian of history tasked with the taxonomy of knowledge and experiences, and an institution grown out of a colonial logic, but also as a site for meaningful collective exchange.

Storforsen is a waterfall on the Pite River in Swedish Norrbottens län is located approximately 38 km northwest of Älvsbyn. With an average flow of 250 m3/s, the rapids are one of the biggest in Europe, stretching over a distance of 5 km of which 60 metres are one single waterfall. The waterfall and its banks are a nature reserve. By Storforsen The Luleå Biennial together with Public Art Agency Sweden present the newly commissioned site-specific c work Lichen by the artist Ingrid Elsa Maria Ogenstedt.

At the Luleå Theatre Academy, actors for theatre, lm, TV and radio are educated. The academy was set up in 1996 in a unique collaboration between Luleå University of Technology and Norrbot- ten’s Theatre. The school is located in direct connection to the theatre which means that the students get a natural connection to professional theatre staff and practical theatrical work. Luleå Theatre Academy is part of the institution for art, communications and learning where all of the University’s artistic education is gathered. Dimen Abdulla’s new performance Black Cat and White Fox has been produced in collaboration with the school.

Luleå University of Technology (LTU) is Scandinavia’s northernmost technical university. LTU consists of six departments and around 15 000 students distributed across Luleå, Piteå, Skellefteå, Kiruna, Filipstad and Borlänge. The Luleå Campus is the university’s largest, and is located on Porsön about 4 kilometres from central Luleå. This is the site for the new public sculpture Lichen by Ingrid Elsa Maria Ogenstedt, commissioned by the Luleå Biennial, Public Art Agency Sweden and Akademiska hus.

Välkommaskolan [The Välkomma School] is a secondary school in Malmberget, in the Gällivare municipality, which since 2010 has been part of Lapland’s secondary school. The brick building, typical of its time, was built in the 1960’s, and includes several art works, for instance a mosaic by Lars Gezelius. It also houses a library, which will host some activities during the exhibition period. The school, which is now being evacuated to eventually be demolished as part of the relocation of Malmberget’s centre to enable continued mining activity. For the academic year 2020/2021, the students will be taught in the newly built Kunskapshuset in Gällivare.

As a part of Woven Songs, a collaboration with the Public Art Agency Sweden, Välkommaskolan will host a group exhibition which brings together seven artists. The touring photography exhibition Svärta is also on display there.