The Sámi in Two Nordic Art Projects: Mattias Olofsson’s Stor-Stina and Jorma Puranen’s Imaginary Homecoming

Abstract

Summary This paper examines how representations of the Sámi emerge in the art of two contemporary Nordic artists, Mattias Olofsson and Jorma Puranen. It compares Olofsson’s performances of Stor-Stina (1999-present) with Puranen’s Imaginary Homecoming (1991-97), showing how their projects convey and simultaneously attempt to dismantle a settler mentality. Through the comparison, the paper argues for the critical discernment of how art may reproduce a colonial framework so that we may break our habitual ways of imagining the world.