Luleå Biennial 2020:
Time on Earth
21.11.2020~14.2.2020

Information regarding Covid-19

Last chance The Luleå Biennial 2020: Time on Earth

Wednesday February 10, 16~20 and Saturday February 13–Sunday February 14, 12~16
Galleri Syster is open. Group show with Augusta Strömberg, Susanna Jablonski and Ana Vaz.

Thursday February 11–Sunday February 14, 12~16
Havremagasinet länskonsthall in Bodenis open. Group show with Beatrice Gibson, Susanna Jablonski, Birgitta Linhart, Fathia Mohidin, Charlotte Posenenske, Tommy Tommie and Danae Valenza.

Saturday February 13–Sunday February 14, 14~18
The former prison Vita Duvan is open with an electro acoustic installation by Maria W Horn.

Saturday February 13, 15~19
The artist Markus Öhrn and the poet David Väyrynens sound installation "Bikt" is exhibited on the ice by Residensgatan in Luleå. Listen to older generations of Tornedal women and their testimonies.

Book your visit via Billetto. Drop in is possible as far as space allows.

For those of you who do not have the opportunity to physically visit the Luleå Biennale on site, a radio show including artist talks, sound works and specially written essays will be on stream on Saturday February 13–Sunday February 14. Visit our radio page here.

The exhibitions at Norrbotten's Museum, Luleå konsthall, Välkommaskolan in Malmberget and the Silver Museum are unfortunatly closed.

For Those Who Died in the Fire (1)
David Väyrynen

The one who has studied history knows that
Svea Granberg did not die
the third of March in
the house of Flamman

Biding her time
after a thousand sorrows
she’ll soon bring the
old to ruin

*   *   *



Everyone cannot be a
Danko as in Gorky’s poem
like Torgny, twelve years old
dead by burning

Still he is one of
five whose hearts glow
for the red fire that
is continuously lit

*   *   *



Flamman burnt but had already
suffered great damage from
the hard years of
transport prohibition

There to extinguish
Arthur’s voice that cut against
days when people screamed that
Finland’s cause is ours

*   *   *



The people who returned from Spain
were seen to have betrayed their country
for Finland they were
now queuing up

Alice became a victim
although she didn’t want to
die where Rappe demanded
that one should die

*   *   *



Strange thing that those that
never cried for war
were denied life
Maj was one of them

Pieces on a board
much too meagre
they lost the future
hopeless, out of sight




  1. On the collective gravestone commemorating those who died in the fire, two stanzas of poetry are inscribed. The present verses are an attempt to honour the victims individually.

Radio 65.22 is an auditory cross section of the biennial’s theme and contents, which amplifies and makes accessible written texts, framed situations and artistic voices. Radio 65.22 also enables an encounter with chosen parts of the Luleå Biennial’s activities for those who cannot experience the biennial in situ.

With Radio 65.22, we want to inscribe ourselves into an experimental and exploratory radio tradition, where the media itself becomes a platform for our ideas on radio and its capacity to depict and mirror the world around us. The task of Radio 65.22 is to tell of reality, in further ways that may not be possible through the image or the text.

Under Fragments: Time on Earth you will find radio programmes and sound pieces in different genres and forms that reflect this year’s biennial in various ways. Spirit of Place is a touring series of literary conversations on language and place. The culture journalist Kerstin Wixe takes us along to places that have played a significant part in an author’s stories, or carries the story’s history. Woven Songs is a deepening series of radio programmes that accentuate singing, the voice and the role of storytelling in the creation of new world views and orders, produced in collaboration with Public Art Agency Sweden.

Listen, reflect, enjoy!