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Becoming a European Capital of Culture (ECoC) is an opportunity for a city to open up for new experiences, new relations, and new ideas. It is a process of changing patterns and habits and creating new ideas. It is a commitment to search for something new. For Bodø, working with light artists in general was a relatively new experience. The end of year light festival, Nordland by Light, was an important part of the programme, and it also gave us new connections and relations to Japan.

The city of Bodø was completely destroyed in the beginning of World War II. The reconstruction of the city centre still represents an important part of the city’s identity. In large parts of the city, it is still visible in architecture and aesthetics. In other parts of the city, new buildings and expressions are taking over. This was the cultural and historic context light artist Yasuhiro Chida responded to, with the concept CONNECTIONS.

For the end of the ECoC programme we wanted to create a large-scale artistic intervention in the public space between the two buildings that are Stormen Culture Quarter, the library and the concert hall. The two city centre buildings from 2014 make up the cultural heart of Bodø. This is the main public venue in the whole Nordland region. The culture quarter is built on historic ground, with great symbolic value to the city.

Stormen Culture Quarter is two monumental buildings, by DRDH Architects. The buildings belong together. The architecture and expression create a clear and obvious connection, but the buildings are still physically separate and with different functions. In Mr. Chida’s proposal the buildings get a temporary connection, reminding us about the real function of the culture quarter. A number of lights installed in the library weave a bridge in thin air, in the space above the street, creating the connection that otherwise exist on a conceptual level only.

The process of creating the work is perhaps equally important to the final result. The visits by Mr. Chida to Bodø gave us an important goal for the end of our year. The commitment to producing a work of this level involve stake holders beyond the ECoC team. Local architect Sami Rintala and his office Rintala-Eggertson was involved early in the process and became an important connection in itself. During the process of developing the project, Rintala won the competition for building the Nordic pavilion for the 2025 EXPO in Osaka, Japan, creating another link between our city and Japan. In relation to Mr. Chida’s project, we believe this added focus on the cultural connection between Japan and Bodø/Norway was an extra asset. An unexpected opportunity to get even deeper into artistic and cultural connections.

It is always a real challenge to create artistic interventions in public buildings and spaces. This project was no exception. The concept involved two public buildings and a busy public street that is also the main road to the bus station of Bodø, with both local and regional bus routes. The project was dependent on close cooperation between the artist, Bodø2024 as producers, architects, local technicians, city administration and even public road authorities. All entities and stake holders showed interest and great generosity. Everyone contributed with ability to adapt, including the artist himself, making the necessary adjustments without losing the project’s main idea and concept.

In the final stages of the project, the launch of the work was organized together with a light parade with volunteers and audience from across the city. Children from the local schools prepared small hand-held lamps and torches, while volunteer organisations made bonfires and served warm drinks. In an extremely cold winter evening in Bodø’s city centre, more than 100 people actively participated in the event. As a part of the event, people could also experience a concert with Akihisa Kominato and Kanako Uzawa, together with Sámi musician John-Kåre Hansen.

Our collaboration with Yasuhiro Chida, made possible with the support of EU-Japan Fest Japan Committee, is a great example of the true value of cultural cooperation. Creating artistic work on a larger scale opens up completely new connections. Not just between the traditional cultural operators, but the city as a whole. Cultural exchange and artistic work have the power to engage people of different backgrounds and sectors, and in this case even different parts of the world and quickly find common ground to reach a goal together. In a longer perspective a project like CONNECTIONS in our festival Nordland by Light can serve as a reminder of not just a connection between two buildings, but between two regions of the world.