My Place

My Place by Stamsund International Theatre Festival was made up of groups of children in six communities in the six municipalities in the Lofoten region. They all were to examine their own place, to find the stories, the landmarks and the environments giving the place its special character. The findings were presented in shape of a photo and video exhibition. Later the children in collaboration with an artist made a work of art representing the stories of the place. In the last phase of the project the different groups meet to tell their stories and show each other their art. The material also was exhibited in full Stamsund International Theatre Festival 2007. Included in the project was an exchange of My Place ideas and material with groups in Ireland and Sweden, who had been through similar processes in their local communities.

The children who participated in My Place first had an exhibition in December 2006. After this four of the projects worked with artists making a new exhibition for Stamsund International Theatre Festival. The following was displayed during the festival:

Sørvågen: The Sørvågen children were long interested in buildings and architecture, but eventually they decided to make a music video. Two of the girls wrote lyrics and music and the song got the name 68 grader nord (literally: 68 degrees North). They made a provisory studio in the school’s music room in collaboration with the local musician Kurt Holmen. All of the pupils participated in the singing. Thorbjørn Gabrielsen and photographer Peter Goldstine stayed in Sørvågen for a week to film and photograph. They brought a laser cannon and light equipment and made a small studio in the corridor underneath the swimming pool in the school basement. They also travelled around to record in Reine, Sørvågen and Å. Thorbjørn Gabrielsen edited one of the videos while the pupils edited two other versions.

Henningsvær: The Henningsvær pupils decided to document the buildings along the shore and in particular the old wharf houses. They were put in contact with designer Jørund Ek. Together they took more than 500 photos of the wharf houses and the environment surrounding them. They built an abstract model of a wharf 4 meters long, 1,70 meters wide and approximately 2,30 tall. The model was built in the woodwork room at the school. Under the model black plastic pipes were attached to the floor to give an era of a wharf environment. Then the pupils projected their photos on the one wall covered with a see-through cloth. The installation was called Min brygge (literally: My Wharf) and became a complex installation communication on many levels.

Stamsund: The group in Stamsund decided to make a tribute to the long stone quay in Stamsund. The local artist was Sissel Helgesen. The group went to the beach to collect driftwood. This the children used to build a large screen measuring 2x3 meters. Parts of the screen were painted in a fair colour, upon which the pupils filmed the quay from a boat, plus themselves on the quay. The video was projected on the driftwood and made a colour pattern on the wall behind it. The installation was called En honnør til steinkaia (literally: A tribute to the stone quay).

Skjelfjord: The Skjelfjord pupils decided to continue working with photo. They were put in touch Øystein Sanne, Peter Goldstine and Kjell Stenhaug who travelled to Skjelfjord. In collaboration with the youth they found six old black and white photographs. They determined the exact spots the photos had been taken and took new photos from the exact same spots and with the exact same angle. This way they made a photo exhibition of 12 images documenting what had changed through 100 years. The work was called tid (literally: time).

Source: Stamsund International Theatre, http://www.stamsund-internasjonale.no/, 07.11.2010, http://www.mittsted-lofoten.com/index.htm