Following the opening of Joar Nango’s new exhibition, Building an archive of Indigenous architecture, join us to hear from Nango and fellow visiting Sámi architects and collaborators.

Building an archive of Indigenous architecture is a continuation of Joar’s ongoing project Girjegumpi. In Aotearoa, facilitating a space to consider Māori architecture was integral to the project and marks the beginning of conversations that will continue in the future.

Nango and collaborators Katarina Spik Skum, Magnus Antaris Tuolja, and Eve Sarapää will share reflections on their time in Aotearoa and insights into their practices with project facilitator Zoe Black.

Get your $10 ticket to attend this morning talk with a coffee & croissant in hand.

Joar Nango is an architect and artist based in Romsa, Norway. His work is rooted in Sápmi – the traditional Sámi territory covering the northern regions of Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Kola Peninsula in Russia. Through building, site-specific interventions, design collaborations, photography, publications and video, Nango’s work explores the role of Sámi and Indigenous architecture and craft in contemporary thought. Nango’s work, including the long-term project Girjegumpi, is nurtured by parallel collaborations with other artists, architects and craftspeople. Trained at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim, Nango graduated in Architecture in 2008. Since then, his work has been presented at documenta 14; Bergen Kunsthall; National Museum – Architecture, Oslo; Canadian Centre for Architecture; Sámi Dáiddaguovddáš (Sámi Centre for Contemporary Art); and Kiasma, Helsinki.

Katarina Spik Skum is a duodjár, an artist and maker of Sámi traditional craft, based in Jåhkåmåhkke. Katarina Spik Skum's practice is based on Sámi traditions, and much of her inspiration is taken from Sámi culture and nature. Spik Skum has a master's degree in duodji from Sámi allaskuvla, the Sámi University of Applied Sciences in Kautokeino, Norway, although a lot of her duodje knowledge is inherited from her mother and grandmother. Spik Skum is a recipient of the Asa Kitok scholarship, and has exhibited extensively in Sápmi and beyond.

Eveliina Sarapää is an architect with Sámi roots in Ohcejohka, who lives and works in Helsinki. Sarapää specializes in demanding renovations and conversions of buildings, wooden architecture and Sámi architecture. Her aim is to ignite wider conversation about Sámi architecture in Finland through her work and to draw attention to the decolonization of architecture drawing from Sámi architecture epistemologies.

Magnus Antaris Tuolja is a cultural craftsman interested in duodji, archives and specialises in preservation of traditional Sámi buildings. He has studied cultural conservation on building crafts at the University of Gothenburg, and has recently undertaken the restoration of a site west of Borgafjäll. Presently, he is undertaking an archive project at Ájtte Museum in Jåhkåmåhkke.

This programme is supported by Nordisk Kulturfond’s Globus initiative and The Warren Trust.

Coffee & Croissants is a conversation series supported by our friends at Allpress Espresso and Daily Bread.

(above) Conversation on ‘Architecture in Sápmi’ during Girjegumpi: The Sámi Architecture Library by Joar Nango and collaborators at the Nordic Countries Pavilion, La Biennale di Venezia, 2023, photographs by Federico Sutera