Art and Truth-Telling

Avant Joik (Matti Aikio, Katarina Barruk and Maja Solveig Kjelstrup Ratkje), Sissel M Bergh, Niklas Blindh, Monica L Edmondson, Mats Jonsson, Johanna Minde, Per Elof Nilsson Ricklund, Lisa Nyberg, Julia Rensberg, Birgitta Ricklund, Risfjells Sameslöjd (Doris Risfjell and Sven-Åke Risfjell), and Elme Ämting.

What counts as truth? In what ways can art expand the language of truth and the process of truth-telling? Art and Truth-Telling—Sádniesvuahdah dájdán tjarra—marks the process of the Truth Commission for the Sámi people on the Swedish side of Sábmie. Bildmuseet initiated a year-long collaboration with Gaaltije Saemien Museume in Staare [Östersund] to highlight the role of art in the expression of personal and collective truths. The exhibition Art and Truth-Telling at Bildmuseet is the first chapter of a cross-institutional project unfolding over the course of a year and grounded in the South and Ume Sámi language areas within Sábmie. The exhibition runs from October 17, 2025 to April 5, 2026, and continues at Gaaltije Saemien Museume from May 9, 2026 to October 17, 2026.

Through vuöllie [joik], duöjjie [Sámi crafts], drawing, installation, architecture and glasswork, the exhibition gives shape to a living cosmos of Sámi experiences, where testimonies, dreams and resistance meet. The project supported the production of eleven new artworks by artists from different generations with connections to the southern Sábmie. The themes that traverse the artworks are by no means a prescribed response to the Truth Commission. Rather, they speak to a continuum of engagement by the artists, an ongoing reckoning with histories that have shaped Sámi life and culture. While the works bear witness to cultural loss and the invisibility of Sámi presence in official narratives, they also evoke acts of resistance and resilience rooted in land and ancestry. Present-day exploitation and control of natural resources, echoing colonial dynamics, bring forth the question posed by the pan-Sámi and Nordic ensemble Avant Joik: Can we reconcile?.

Integral to the project is the collaboration with Sámi cultural centres and associations, acknowledging the vital role they play in continuities of Sámi traditions and knowledge systems.

While anchored at Bildmuseet and Gaaltije Saemien Museume, this project is multi-sited and evolving over the year. A series of activations, each grounded in the contexts of the participating artists, connect art and inquiries to the places that have shaped them. These gestures not only decentre the exhibition’s physical sites but also emphasise the inseparability of place and implicated communities from the issues at stake.

Gaaltije Saemien Museume is a museum and a cultural centre rooted in the South Sámi region and located in Staare [Östersund]. The Gaaltije Foundation, established in 1984, has since 2022 embarked on a journey to develop a Sámi museum in close collaboration with the Sámi community. Bildmuseet has long engaged with Sámi culture and artists—curating landmark exhibitions such as Same, Same, but Different (2004), presenting the first major solo exhibitions of Britta Marakatt-Labba (2009) and Katarina Pirak Sikku (2014), and highlighting Sámi artists during the European Capital of Culture year in Ubmeje [Umeå] through eight exhibitions with new commissions.

There are approximately nine Sámi languages spoken across Sábmie, several of which are severely endangered. For the exhibition at Bildmuseet, the content is being translated into Ume Sámi, a critically endangered language spoken by around 60 individuals in the region. At Gaaltije Saemien Museume, the content will be presented in South Sámi, spoken by an estimated 500–600 people across Sweden and Norway.

Curated by Anneli Bäckman and Anca Rujoiu.

With thanks to the Aejlies Sámi Centre in Deärnná [Tärnaby], Arctic Arts Summit 2026, Norrlandsoperan, Såhkie—Umeå Sámi Association, Umeå Film Festival, Várdduo—Centre for Sámi Research, Umeå Academy of Fine Arts and UmArts at Umeå University, and Accelerator at Stockholm University.