Gállok Protest Art – Protest Art from Kallak 13.6.–21.9.2014

Artists participated actively in a demonstration against mining at Camp Gállok in the neighbourhood of Jokkmokk, Sweden, in the summer of 2013. The camp was set up when the mining company JIMAB began logging in the area where test drilling for a mine would be done. With the logging operations, the first activists arrived at the site.

The camp grew into an international meeting place where the opponents of the mine, conservationists and Sámi fought together against the planned mining operations. In July and August, several cultural events were arranged at Kamp Gállok; they included, for example, an art workshop. It was attended by Sámi artists such as Anders Sunna, Jenni Laiti and Lena Viltok, and activists from the camp. The paintings, signs and installations by the blockade on the road to the mine in Gállok evolved into a big work of art.

When Kamp Gállok was taken down in the autumn, the artist collective tucked away the signs, banderols and installations; the road blockade by the camp was on its way from the forest road to galleries. Prior to Siida, Gállok Protest Art has been exhibited in Jokkmokk, Umeå, Luleå and Nikkaluokta. The Sámi artist Anders Sunna said at the opening of the exhibition in Jokkmokk in September 2013: “This is a way of fighting back, this is what our creative resistance looks like.”

The struggle over Gállok is one of the most important fights over Sámi rights today. It has given more force to Sámi culture and art, and we can also see this in the Gállok Protest Art exhibition. In the spheres of art and culture, Sámi resistance against mining continues to be strong. Several new cultural events will be arranged in Gállok in the summer of 2014.

Gállok Protest Art – Protest Art from Kallak is open for the public in Siida from 13 June to 21 September 2014. Siida is open in summer from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.