Artist statement – Christian Houge

”The Barentsburg series 2000-2007”

The scarcely populated arctic archipelago of Svalbard has fascinated me for several years. During regular visits to these northern reaches of Norway, I have photographed the moon-like landscapes featuring vast expanses of uninhabited land. This secluded island is one of the most untouched areas in the world and contains the cleanest atmosphere man can find. It's physical circumstances and northerly position, makes this a Mecca for scientists, who have installed extensive technical constructions for climate research and space observations. I discovered Barentsburg by chance during a snowscooter exebition in what seemed like the middle of nowhere. Since then, I have visited the town nine times.

The Barentsburg series show a small Russian coal mining community frozen in time, lingering in the past of the Soviet empire. I have focused on the encounter between exterior and interior, ice and coal, profit and the abandoned. The photographs of lonely, passive figures and strong sense of melancholy underline the sense of awaitingness for prosperity through mining the earth.

The energy and confidence of the young Soviet Union in its ambitious undertakings in Svalbard is evident in setting up facilities as a sports centre with an indoor swimming pool, a library and a museum. However, the absence of streets, trees, shops or cars robs the place of its urban integrity. Lenin's monument, an obligatory element of every Soviet town seems a lonely figure, heightening the sensation of a frozen, lifeless place. The harsh climate with the dwindling of coal resources followed by the decline of the Soviet state resulted in a slow decline of the settlements. In Barentsburg, which once boasted a population of almost a thousand, the number of inhabitants has decreased to merely two hundred.

I am fascinated by the geographic and temporal sense of isolation of the Russian community, which seems to exist in a time warp, untouched by social and aesthetic changes that has been taking place in the outside world. Far away from their homeland, suspended in time they are captured in a moment of hesitation, a state between belonging and alienation, the past and the uncertainty of the future.

The scars the mining community has left on earth, however, will always remain.