For a long time, our gaze has been turned backwards, downwards and eastwards. We have a neighbor who has gone to war. Friendships have ended, shops have closed, cooperation shut down, and the public conversation is colored by sadness over a Barents cooperation that has spectacularly collapsed.
At this point, we might need to look forwards, upwards and northwards. The Arctic is vast, but the challenges and opportunities we share are even greater. Across Arctic communities, tensions are rising as questions of extraction, industrialization and centralized power meet nature conservation, indigenous cultures and self-determination.
How can a Pan-Arctic future take shape, and what common visions can we hope for? How can we fantasize about changes in the Arctic, without being naive? How can we build realizable futures without losing sight of our imagination?
While the ice cracks, the rock breaks and the wind is caught, new dreams can take shape. We are convinced that we must continue to talk together, experience together, think together and feel together. Barents Spektakel 2028 roots itself as part of a northern, circumpolar community in the exploration of a possible Pan-Arctica.