Anders Sunna | The Sámi Pavilion, Venice Biennale 2022

Sámi artists Anders Sunna, Máret Ánne Sara and Pauliina Feodoroff have transformed the Nordic Pavilion to highlight the continuing struggle against colonialism, discrimination and land possession faced by Europe’s only Indigenous people

Anders Sunna, who is from Swedish Sápmi, created an installation of five large-scale “history” paintings, each depicting a decade in the 50-year battle between his family and the Swedish authorities, mainly over reindeer-herding practices. “When the government had made you illegal, then everything is legal to do to you. So, you have no rights at all,” Sunna said, speaking at his studio in the Swedish town of Jokkmokk ahead of the biennale. The paintings, which incorporate collage and draw on Sámi symbology, are enclosed within wooden casings carved by members of Sunna’s family, with shelves holding folders of thousands of documents from all the court cases, and each work immerses the viewer in a sonic landscape composed of field recordings from the court and interviews. The charred remains of a sixth painting in the series lie strewn on the ground, representing an equivocal future.

Giardini
27 September – 27 November 2022

Review and interviews by ELIZABETH FULLERTON
Filmed by ELIZABETH FULLERTON and MARTIN KENNEDY