Kulturhuvudstaden Kiruna

The European Capital of Culture is an initiative from the EU commission, and two cities in different countries is awarded the title every year. The chosen cities
will then use this year to organise a series of cultural events that develop their local cultural offer and increase international collaborations. The year aims
to contribute to citizens’ well-being and to the city´s prosperity, as well as strengthen its position on the international map. The initiative also aims to highlight the cultural richness, diversity and to contribute to mutual understanding between Europeans.

In our municipality, we have over a thousand vacant jobs and not enough people to fill the positions. Therefor it’s vital for us to take good care of everyone already living in Kiruna, and welcome many more. For this, an attractive leisure time with access to culture is one of several key factors. That’s why we want to use our year as European Capital of Culture, and the time up until then, to organize interesting cultural activities that create new memories for the entire municipality of Kiruna. The project aim to both enrich the cultural landscape in the region and increase Kiruna’s international cooperations. We have so much to share with the world, and so much to learn from Europe. We want to build pride in who we are and what we offer: our stories, our traditions and our arctic way of tackling contemporary challenges and art.

Kiruna is candidating for the title European Capital of Culture as a way to promote culture-driven community development in both Kiruna city and the entire surrounding region.

Every night at 1:30 a.m. you hear a muted explosion in Kiruna. The walls slightly vibrate and the water at your bedside vaguely ripples. It’s the magnetic iron-ore heart underneath the city and its heartbeat. The big underground mine, detonating a blast. Every night for more than 100 years the state-owned mine has provided Sweden and Europe with high quality iron-ore. The city of Kiruna is built on the biggest underground iron-ore mine in the world. But now the city is literally cracking up.

The heartbeat, the blasts underground, make cracks appear everywhere. Roads are breaking, the infrastructure of pipes in the ground is deforming and buildings can’t withstand the stress of the constant explosions anymore. The only way out is to either close the mine or move the city. The first is not an option, since the iron-ore is indispensable for national and European interest.

So, the city must move. And it’s happening right now. Some buildings are picked up on huge trailers, but most of them are demolished. Roads are cut off. The claws of the machines are eating away at the memories and years of life of the people day by day. A third of our population is being uprooted and has to find new homes. We are faced with piles of bricks and ruins, not an uplifting sight, we must admit, and of course it stirs up different feelings. Sorrow for what is lost, but also hope and excitement for the future. The new cityscape with impressive buildings, hotels, cafés and cultural venues are taking shape and gives us possibilities to start anew.

We must be the city with the youngest city centre in Europe. Ours was inaugurated in 2022. Shiny and new and surrounded by construction sites as the new city centre continues to grow and a new future is designed.

But how do we find our soul, our character, our culture amidst all this movement? Where do we find ourselves when the dust has settled? We want to make sure we build a vibrant and culturally rich city, where people from all over the world come to have a fika with locals. A city where culture leads the societal transformation. This is our story, our movement.

This is what we are moving towards and want to share with Europe. This is why we want to become the European Capital of Culture 2029.

Our artistic vision is to share our strong and captivating stories, indigenous traditions and our Arctic take on contemporary challenges that affects all of Europe.

We have both cultural cathedrals and an abundance of creative space. We have state-funded institutions as well as a wide span of grass-roots movements and world class artists. Welcome to our playground.

Movement – Below Ground. On Earth. In Space. is something that defines us, that runs through the veins of everyone living here, both historically and currently, regardless of culture or traditions.

The core of our artistic vision is to always apply a female gaze, keeping our young community involved and integrating perspectives from the indigenous Sami people and Tornedalian cultures on their own terms. Making sure the artistic vision becomes reality, our strategy is that whenever you will visit Kiruna, there will be an event going on, a cultural site to enjoy or a sensorial experience to be had, regardless the time of year.

Just like Kiruna itself, our strategy is to use a mix of contrasting elements in our programme to keep an interesting balance. A few projects, like the Human Machine and Kultura Kiruna, are large-scale for big audiences. Others are exclusively for you to explore on your own in private, like Culture Knocks on Your Door or having a date-night at a fireplace around a Natural Gathering site. Behind the Gates will go down deep and Eadnámet will rise high above. Take a Bite at Nature will last all year and Open up to Culture just for a moment. Regardless of depth, length or width, they will all spark an emotional or physical movement.

With our vision and programme, we will raise sensitive topics around the city transformation, the right of land and rural exclusion. Through creative methods and artistic outlets we want to touch upon issues that create cracks and conflicts within ourselves and in our society, alongside with the joy and compassion that we have for one another and care for future generations, history and nature. We see the cracks appearing everywhere and we will use the movement as opportunity for something new, vibrant and colourful to take place.

We will dig deep – into the mycelium of stories, histories, contemporary myths and future legends. Equally to building a new city, producing a world-class flagship cultural event requires a solid foundation of creative professionals and an engaged community. We will turn people’s eyes towards the sky by inviting them, to not only imagine new futures, but to shape those futures with their own creativity and input. Kiruna’s citizens of all ages will have the possibility to step in and be part of the Human Machine dance company or the Human Machine choir or the Youth production team, years in advance of our celebration year as a way to slowly and steadily build competence in our region and capacity to deliver magical Human Machine events out of the ordinary.

By working with local, national and international professionals, organisations and associations, we’ll be able to highlight the specific contrasts of Kiruna, the past and the present, the light and the dark, the height and the depth, the humans and the machines.