«My life is a series of anecdotes, composed of a multitude of small events«, said Idar Kristiansen. Get to know Kristiansen's artistic life and multi-faceted talents.
Exhibition tour Idar Kristiansen
Produced by: Centre for Northern Peoples, Troms County Library, North Troms Museum and Halti Kven Culture Centre
Supported by: Norwegian Arts Council, Fritt Ord, Troms County Council and Kåfjord Municipality
Would you like to borrow? Contact kjellaug@nordligefolk.no, tel. 473 70 934
The Kven and Sámi cultures, and a love for their native regions, characterise the writing of Idar Kristiansen from Kåfjord. His debut book Songs from a tundra (1957) was well-received by reviewers in the Norwegian press. The poems strike the tone for his future authorship with a focus on nature, people, and culture in the High North. In 1970 came Expedition to Kautokeino, A documentary novel about the Sami's rebellion against authority and social injustice. The rebellion culminated in a bloody religious showdown in Kautokeino in the autumn of 1852. The main work in Kristiansen's authorship is the novel series The trumpet and the fishes I fire bind, based on the Finnish emigration to Finnmark and Northern Troms in the latter half of the 19th century. The series sparked both great enthusiasm and intense debate in its time. For the first two books in the series – Swan wings in the north (1978) and The salt field (1979) – he received the Aschehoug Award in 1980, and in the same year he was nominated for the Nordic Council's Literature Prize 1981 for The stone leads to the sea (1980).
In the exhibition, we also encounter the painter, poet, teacher, journalist and public debater. Idar Kristiansen was a productive, engaged and versatile artist. A man with a lot on his mind.
Here you can read more about his books, hear talks and poems, see his paintings and more.
The exhibition is created by the Centre for Northern Peoples, Troms County Library, Nord-Troms Museum and Halti Kven Culture Centre, and is supported by the Norwegian Arts Council, Fritt Ord, Troms County Council and Kåfjord Municipality.
