Formally trained as an architect, Joar Nango makes collaborative site-specific art installations and publications that explore the boundaries between architecture, design and visual art. As he is one of only a few Sámi architects, amplifying ideas related to Indigenous contemporary architecture and traditional building customs is integral to his work.

Nango has collected books and materials relevant to Sámi architecture and Indigenous worldviews for nearly two decades. In 2018, these texts came to be housed in Girjegumpi, a nomadic Sámi architectural library that has since travelled across Sápmi – the traditional Sámi territory covering the northern regions of Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Kola Peninsula in Russia – into Europe and Canada, and to the Nordic Countries pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale.

Named for the Northern Sámi terms ‘gumpi’ (a mobile cabin on runners) and ‘girji’ (book), Girjegumpi is a space for education and dialogue, addressing issues relevant to Indigenous architecture and resistance and Indigenisation. Girjegumpi is a gathering space, a reading room for study and a dreaming place for Indigenous imagination.

At Objectspace, Nango extends Girjegumpi into new territory informed by his time in Aotearoa. Through wānanga and consideration of Māori architecture with those practising here, the project manifests Indigenous knowledge sharing across the hemispheres. Publications offered by local architects join textiles, books, moving-image works and ephemera to create an archive emblematic of the collaborative ground of Nango’s practice.

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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.

This exhibition includes contributions from Eveliina Sarapää, Magnus Antaris Tuolja, Katarina Spik Skum and Ken Are Bongo.

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