Per Elof Nilsson Ricklund, Tysta Mönster, 2025
For a list of events, scroll down.
In November 2021, the Truth Commission for the Sámi people on the Swedish side of Sábmie was established, with the release of its report set for 1 October 2026. Truth Commissions hold the potential to produce new national narratives that acknowledge the harms of the past, contribute to healing, restore dignity and lay the groundwork for structural changes. They also play a crucial role in empowering affected communities by affirming their histories, voices and rights.
Marking this historical moment, Bildmuseet initiated a year-long collaboration with Gaaltije Saemien Museume in Staare [Östersund], highlighting the role of art in the expression of personal and collective truths. The exhibition Art and Truth-Telling at Bildmuseet marks the first chapter of a cross-institutional project unfolding over the course of a year, until the release of the report, and is grounded in the South and Ume Sámi language areas within Sábmie. On 9 May 2026, the exhibition will open at Gaaltije. This project is multi-sited and extends beyond Bildmuseet and Gaaltije. Throughout the year, a series of activations will take place, each situated in the artists’ contexts and connecting questions and art with the places that have shaped them.
Weaving together sound, image and handwork with storytelling traditions, the exhibition shapes a living cosmos of Sámi experiences, where testimonies, dreams and resistance meet. From vuöllie [joik] and duöjjie [Sámi crafts] to drawing, installation, architecture and glasswork, these cultural practices give shape to multiple truths – as material, sonic and embodied expressions. The artworks speak to Professor Harald Gaski’s three key concepts that affirm the Sámi people’s continuous presence on this earth: giälla duöjjie and vuöllie. Giälla refers to language – the capacity of sounds, words and visuals to communicate experience and convey knowledge. Duöjjie is both philosophy and practice, a bearer of Sámi knowledge expressed through the making of objects that unite the aesthetic with the functional. Vuöllie – the act of yoiking – is a musical form of communication that calls forth the presence of human and more-than-human life.
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 Avant Joik in their work 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. They are also institutions important to efforts of self-determination, opening their doors to Sámi culture and sharing their knowledge with a wider public. The presentation of a selection of Sámi handicrafts and everyday objects from Risfjells Sameslöjd and Museum highlights the importance of Sámi self-organised museums as institutions that can tell Sámi history from their own perspectives and with their own methods.
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. From a gathering in a local library exploring a possible Sámi name for Kramfors in the absence of a recorded one, to a visit and discussion in Vualtjere [Vilhelmina] about the work and future of Risfjells Sameslöjd and Museum, these gestures not only decentre the exhibition’s physical sites but 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 solo 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. In the context of the Bildmuseet exhibition, terminology derived from Sámi art and knowledge, including the names of specific localities, has been consistently used in Ume Sámi. A few of the original work titles are written in other Sámi languages. We are grateful to Sophia Rehnfjell for her Ume Sámi translation efforts. At Gaaltije Saemien Museume, the content will be presented in South Sámi, spoken by an estimated 500–600 people across Sweden and Norway. These translations highlight the importance of grounding the artworks in their linguistic and cultural contexts.
At Bildmuseet, unless otherwise stated.
FRI 17/10 2025 17:00–24:00
Opening of Art and Truth-Telling exhibition and performance by Avant Joik: Can We Reconcile? Presentations, guided tours, workshops, DJ and bar
SAT 18/10 2025 14:00–15:00
Artists’ tour in conversation with the curators
SUN 30/11 2025 14:00–16:00
Screening of films thematically related to the exhibition In collaboration with Umeå Film Festival and Aejlies Sámi Centre, Deärnná [Tärnaby]
FRI 5/12 2025 13:00–14:00
To Know and be Known by (a) Place. Performance by artist Lisa Nyberg. In collaboration with UmArts, Umeå University
SAT 7/2 2026 13:00–15:00
What is a Sámi name for Kramfors?
Workshop in Kramfors Library, led by artists Elme Ämting and Mats Jonsson
SAT 7/3 2026 14:00–15:00
Discussion on acts of translation with Sophia Rehnfjell, translator of Ume Sámi, during Ubmejen Biejvieh, the Sámi Week in Umeå. In collaboration with Såhkie – Umeå Sámi Association
FRI 3/4 2026
Workshop on lost ancestral knowledge among Forest Sámi, Led by Susanne Ewerlöf, PhD student in Artistic Research at HDK Valand. In collaboration with UmArts, Umeå University
SAT 9/5 2026
Opening of the exhibition at Gaaltije Saamien Museume in Staare [Östersund]
FRI 12/6 2026
Gathering in Vualtjere [Vilhelmina]
Tour in Risfjells Sameslöjd by Doris Risfjell and Sven-Åke Risfjell. The Significance of the Cold Water Spring, workshop in Mårtensliden. Led by artist Lisa Nyberg
WED 17/6 2026
Performance by Avant Joik during the Arctic Art Summit in Ubmeje [Umeå]
In collaboration with Norrlandsoperan
