North by Southeast Residency: Sam Smith on Gotland Island #1, Settling Into Island Life

Sam Smith is currently working with the community of Gotland Island in Sweden, as part of the Spaced North by Southeast program.

Sam Smith currently lives and works in London. Upcoming exhibitions include: Ways of Looking, Gallery of Contemporary Art, E-WERK, Freiburg; and Glasgow International 2016 at The Telfer Gallery. Recent projects include: Centro de Artes Visuais, Coimbra; Screen Space, Melbourne; De Appel Arts Centre, Amsterdam; Australian Centre for Moving Image, Melbourne; Sandefjord Kunstforening and Larvik Kunstforening, Norway; Jupiter Woods, London; and insitu, Berlin (all 2015); KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin; The Artists’ Film Biennial, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London; The Royal Standard, Liverpool; and Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin (all 2014). He was selected for FOKUS 2015, Nikolaj Kunsthal, Copenhagen (2015) and Les Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin/Madrid (2014-2015). From 2013 to 2014 he was part of the International Studio Programme at Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin.

Here, Sam shares an update from Gotland Island.

I’m in a small 2 propeller plane from Stockholm, surrounded by a detachment of young soldiers. The guy in full military garb next to me is continuously solving and randomising his worn rubix cube for the entire 30-minute journey as I watch the archipelago below.

That was my introduction to the Swedish island of Gotland, which has only recently been re-militarised. We land at a small airport outside the UNESCO World Heritage Site city of Visby where Baltic Art Center (BAC) is located. Walking out of the terminal I’m immediately confronted by a quaint medieval barn which I’m told was built purely for the tourists.

The first few days are spent getting to know Visby and the staff of BAC, Helena and Anna. We chat about the ancient geological formation of the island and the abundant fossils, medieval buildings, Viking artefacts and mining pits that dot the landmass. On the third day, I meet with Helen Beltrame-Linné, the artistic director of the Bergman Centre, which is located on the northern island of Fårö. This is where Ingmar Bergman lived for over 40 years and where he shot 5 films and 2 documentaries. We discussed his legacy and the way the unique island served as a kind of muse. His obsession lead other filmmakers here, notably Andrei Tarkovsky who shot Offret (Sacrifice) in Närsholmen, south-east Gotland.

Later in the week I met Paola Ciliberto from Film på Gotland over lunch in the BAC kitchen. She told me about how various film projects are supported through her organisation which has offices and a studio in Fårösund in the north. She also showed me a mobile app they have in development which charts the history of film and video production on the island, a great resource. I ended the week venturing down the coast to the Högklint nature reserve for a walk along the cliffs in extremely windy conditions.

My first days here have got me thinking about time on a deep ecological and geological timescale. The problematics of our current crisis, where the Earth’s system dynamics is absorbing the effects of our human influence, is evident. Might it be useful to think as an island: a brain whose agency comes from the vibrancy of its contained ecosystem.

-Sam Smith