Gállok – Kallak, 2013

Katarina Pirak Sikku

Annika Gunnarsson: Up in Swedish Lapland lies Laponia, one of Europe’s largest unexploited natural areas, which has been declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisations.

The combination of natural environment and cultural heritage has led several organisations to oppose the Swedish government’s plans to mine iron ore near the area.

In August 2013, a group of activists demonstrated against the planned mining and test explosions at Gállok/Kallak, four kilometres northwest of Jokkmokk.

During one of the police raids, Katarina Pirak Sikku laid out a large white ground cloth on the road. Everyone who passed over the cloth left a mark. Katarina Pirak Sikku called it: “A testimony from the day.”

She pointed out that the history of the Sámi has not been afforded the same status as that of nations, because it hasn’t previously left behind any material traces.

The ground cloth that Katarina Pirak Sikku laid out now carries the memory of events. Both from nature and from what lies hidden beneath the ground. But also of the events that have taken place on the canvas.

The ground cloth both documents and preserves the remnants of those events and those whose presence would otherwise have remained invisible.

Katarina Pirak Sikku’s intervention is a clear commentary on the Western world’s one-sided focus on the material.

In the work “Gállok – Kallak” she reproduces the spiritual dimension of the place by visualising the imprints we humans leave on and in nature. As well as the imprints that nature leaves on man-made objects.