Time is a ship that never casts anchor – Stories from New Kirkenes Hospital was carried out by the Norwegian-Finnish artist duo Karoline Hjorth and Riitta Ikonen in conjunction with the construction of New Kirkenes Hospital.
Kirkenes, Kirkkoniemi, Girkonjárga or Киркенес is located at the north eastern tip of Norway, right at the borders of Russia and Finland. Situated in Norway’s largest and least populated county Finnmark in Sør-Varanger municipality, it is by area just a little bit bigger than Denmark.
The project title ‘Time is a ship that never casts anchor‘ originates from Harald Gaski’s book on Sami proverbs. ‘Jodi lea buoret go oru’ means it is better to be on a journey than staying still or holding on, e.g an expression for a nomadic culture’s world view.
The final artworks was launched in conjunction with the 2018 opening of New Kirkenes Hospital as a permanent exhibition installation, along with a book published in collaboration with Kulturbyrået Mesén.