In September and October, Pikene på Broen hosted the Tromsø based artist Terje Grimen – Tegson and Russian Andrey Pitsyn, as part of our residency program.
The aim of the residency was to research and plan a Street Art Festival which will take place both in Kirkenes and Nikel/Zapoljarnij. The project is a collaboration between Pikene på Broen and Second School in Nikel and aims to strengthen the street art in the Barents region. The project will include both Russian and Norwegian artists and give space for both professionals as well as younger artists, in order for the project also to become a learning platform. The Street Art Festival will take place in 2022, if the border restrictions will allow us to.
Due to the closed borders, the two artists were not able to meet physically, and rather did a parallel residency on each side of the border: Terje Grimen in Kirkenes and Andrey Pitsyn in Nikel. In Kirkenes Terje Grimen visited potential sites and walls in and around Kirkenes and also met with the local project leader of Komafest in Vardø, Svein Harald Holmen. In Nikel, Andrey researched potential walls and sites for the project, and visited the area around the abandoned science station and the world’s deepest drill hole.
