Meet Marije Jenssen

As part of the residency relay The Right To Be Cold – Circumpolar Perspectives

“The Right to Be Cold” is a cross-border, interdisciplinary project focusing on the Arctic and Boreal regions: It negotiates questions of indigenous rights, ecology, climate justice and culture. To this end, voices from different perspectives are heard on this website. They all deal with climate change, which is fundamentally challenging and changing northern living conditions. 

At the centre of the project is a circumpolar relay of residencies planned for 2021. “The Right to be Cold” is a joint project of the Goethe-Institutes in Helsinki, Montreal, Novosibirsk and Oslo.  

Marije Jenssen
Marije Jenssen is a Norwegian-Sámi painter and installation artist from Balsfjord, Norway. Her work is inspired by Northern Norwegian landscape, lifestyles and traditional materials and techniques within weaving. Her focus lies on highlighting the processes of cultivating traditional resources in a sustainable contemporary context. Marije graduated from UWC Adriatic (2014) and Kunstskolen i Bergen (2018). She spent the first two years of her Visual Art Bachelor at KMD in Bergen (2018-'20), and completed her degree at Tromsø Art Academy in May 2021

The programme “The Right To Be Cold” was developed with the advice of Tero Mustonen (Snowchange) and Elin Már Øyen Vister (Røst AiR). The Goethe-Institut would also like to express its appreciation to all those currently involved in the project: Aka Niviâna, Assinajaq, Avataq Cultural Institute, Dáiddadállu, Giovanna Esposito Yussif, Malakta, Patricia Rodas, Sámi Dáiddaguovddáš, Stina Aikio, Sunna Nousuniemi, National Art Museum of the Republic of Sakha.

The title of the project comes from the long battle of Inuit to have their rights linked to climate change. The book of the same name by Sheila Watt-Cloutier (2015, Allen Lane Publication), testifies of her pioneering work in connecting climate change to human rights. Okalik Eegeesiak, Former Chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC) used the expression in her discourse at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change COP 21 December 3, 2015 in Paris, France.