Watery Bodies by Giemas.
2023
By: Eliza Bożek and Nanna Elvin Hansen
Presented at: The Lake Radio and Overgaden Institut for Samtidskunst
Links: https://overgaden.org/da/events/watery-bodies-by-giemas-a-radio-live-stream
Another connecting body of water that we tunned into was the river delta, where the stream touches Lávvonjárga as it flows from the Barents Sea into the Deatnu river and through the bordered spaces of Sapmí from Norway to Finland. Salmon fishing from this river has been an essential part of local life since time immemorial. Traditional fishing in this area is currently under threat due to declining fish populations and new national fishing policies that have led to protests at the river.
From 13.-14. of march 2023 Eliza Bożek and Nanna Elvin Hansen, set up a radio live stream Watery Bodies by Giemaš where listeners could attune to the movements of waters by the shore of the small Sami settlement Lávvonjárga, facing the mountain of Giemaš where where a quartzite quarry is located and at the estuary of the Deatnu river.
The radio broadcast offered a slow listening space and an invitation to listen to soundscapes of the watery movements of difference and of repetition. Using microphones above and under water, through the water passage near Lávvonjárga, we were tuning into sites of connected waters that are facing change and contain political contests in this Arctic area of Sapmí in Norway.
As visitors in the landscape, we wanted to position ourselves as listeners and carefully attune to the patterns of the soundscape under and above the water surface. By listening to the aquatic movements at Lávvonjárga, we wanted to bring attention to connectivity through water—between specific contexts and locations as well as between different types of bodies. By lending our ear to the sea and engaging in slow listening, we speculate on the possibilities of fostering kinship through water as it flows through different spaces, through human and non-human bodies.
The water by Lávvonjárga is a channel that hosts the movements of birds and seals, as well as those of tankers loaded with minerals extracted from a quartzite mining site at Giemaš mountain.
As part of an application to expand the mining site, the Chinese-owned mining company Elkem has requested to dredge the channel, which is part of a nature reserve, in order to make space for bigger and more profitable tankers. From Lávvonjárga, is the sounds of the water at the bay of Reakčavuotna, where marks left by migrating reindeer can be seen in the adjacent landscape. Controversy has arisen due to the planned expansion of the mine as it would disturb the migration of the reindeer.
