Arctic Subcircle in Kars, Turkey
October 1 – 5, 2008
A musical
Mory Kanté, West Afrika
Arto Tuncboyaciyan, Turkey/Armenia
Ragnhild Furebotten, Norway
and the Arctic Subcircle Orchestra
together with
Suren Asatryan, Armenia
Giorgi Khunashvili, Georgia
Firat Emre Karakoc, Turkey
Arctic Subcircle is the latest cooperation project between Pikene på Broen (Kirkenes), Anadolu Kultur (Istanbul), Kars municipality and Festspillene i
The Barents region with its historically peaceful border relations is contrasted by the Caucasus representing a long history of border conflicts. We have created close relations between the Barents Region and Caucasus. Being aware of the contrast between these two border regions, we collaborate with our Turkish, Georgian, Armenian partners and use contemporary art and culture to interpret border issues.
Arctic Subcircle is the result of the music workshop that took place in Kirkenes in January 2008 and the first concert was played in Kirkenes under the Barents Spektakel festival. The idea was to draw a musical circle passing thru Caucasus, West Africa and Arctic Norway. A circle that reveals historic links between music traditions following old migration routes. Thus – Arctic Subcircle.
So, Caucasus, Africa and Scandinavia met together in Kirkenes by the
In the beginning of October 2008 we took this project to Kars to the Caucasus International Festival in Turkey – at the border with Armenia (which is still closed).
We invited into this production new musicians from Armenia, Georgia and from Kars. The workshop was a success – and the repertoire of the Arctic Subcircle got new compositions with new musicians. We were supposed to play the concert in the Kars Castle for 15 000 people.
But the concert and the whole Festival was canceled 2 hours before the concert, as the previous night (from the 3rd to 4th of October) the Kurdish separatists (PKK) attacked a military Turkish post close to the border between Turkey and Irague. 38 people, Turkish soldiers and Kurdish militants, were killed in the clash, thus all public events were canceled in the area.
Unfortunately, such destructive border activities made impossible to carry out a constructive border dialogue, which this music production was about. A series of concerts cannot solve global problems, but it can manifest
Kars Castle
Kars Castle
Mory Kanté
Arto Tuncboyaciyan
Ragnhild Furebotten
Suren Asatryan
Giorgi Khunashvili
Firat Emre Karakoc
Arctic Subcircle Orc.
Arctic Subcircle Orc.
Arctic Subcircle Orc.
Arctic Subcircle
Scene at the Castle
Kars Castle
