Russian Settlement on Spitsbergen

 
   In early 1900 was Barentsburg a place for temporary accommodation for whalers and hunters. Today the main Russian settlement on Spitsbergen and centre of operation for the Trust Arcticugol mining company. Since 1989 also accessible for international tourists. 
   The mining is absolutely necessary for the settlement and important for Russia in an geopolitical sense. The company is digging out tons of coal for consumption by Russian industries and Barentburgs power plant. The coal company own everything and the only hotel has a view over Grønfjord. The facilities have a touch of another culture and give an idea of the difference of Russian and Norwegian settlement in Spitsbergen.The infrastructure in Barentsburg is low or in inferior standard. There is now neighbouring settlement and parts of the year there is non turist transportation at all, except for a long snowmobile ride from Longyearbyen. Visitors are surprised to find a school, sport center and a local brewery that belong to the mining company and worth a visit. 

My Spitsbergen Summer

 
   The islands of Spitsbergen consist of an uninhabited arctic where nature reigns supreme. Cliffs of ice, polar bears and thousands of birds nest in rock bluffs. Longyearbyen is the capital and oldest existing settlement in the archipelago. Today the growing interest of Spitsbergen travel has led to year round flights from the Norwegian mainland. 
   Whalers and hunting tourism have been here for over a hundred years before coal. The Arctic Coal Company was founded in 1906 by Americans Ayer and Longyear. The first mine is still visible. Production was limited at only a couple 1.000 tonnes a year. Longyear City as it was called at the beginning. Populated by 73 men and women mostly Norwegians. By the winter 1912 production had reached 30.000 tonnes and population had risen to 385. Norway secure interest in buying the American mining company. In 1916 ACC was sold to a syndicate for 1,5 million NOK. Today visitors find a modern town with shopping centres and other practicalities. There is also a priest in the world´s northern most church and probably the most difficult parish to get around. 
   There is no full life circle community and no service for elderly people who need assistance. Once the family can no longer  take care of them, they have to leave to the mainland.   
The living condition for families in general is that they have all necessary resources for managing there own daily life. 
Spitsbergen is still unspoiled as a whole and tourism is central attraction. The most popular season is April to early May, followed by the summer, while the dark period of the year is still a challenge to attract tourist. 

Rhinoceros Horn Fever

What makes Africa is its amazing wildlife and the only thing we have learnt from history and the preservation of Africa´s wildlife, is that we have not learn anything from history. The increase of Africa´s population and organized poaching gangs that try to make fortunes from the decimation of black and white rhinos, have an immense impact of the generation of rhinos that grow up today. The horn of a rhino has a huge market in East Asia and by the time it gets there a single horn can be worth as much as 3,700,000,00 €. Powdered rhino horn is worth more than cocaine or heroin and prison terms for trafficking are a fraction of equal amount of narcotics for a first-time smuggler.
   The revelations of poached rhinos per day have attracted immense attention and public concern. A rhino is poached each day just in South Africa and we have to give rhinos a future. Poaching is putting rhinos at risk of losing their culture. A rhino teaches its babies how to be a rhino in the wild and needs its horn as a human needs an arm.  How will young rhinos learn to survive the wild when there mummy is killed for her horns. The gangs are well organized and educated people from the army, and the problem of protecting rhinos is part of larger social and economic problems facing Africa. Unless conservation engage with issues such as corruption and economic development it is unlikely to succeed. 
   Rhinos have been roaming free for millions of years in Africa and the fear is that we end up with a few rhino populations behind fences in private sanctuaries with armed patrols shooting poachers on sight. The source to blame for these killings are not only the organized gangs that make money for these killings but also the consumers.  While their are people out there buying products from the horns there will be people who will kill innocent rhinos just to make money.
   Education is needed on what health benefits the rhinos horn does and doesn't offer and what substitutes are out there.  In fact the health benefits of the rhinos horn is a long traditional myth and offers no benefits at all.  What a waste of a beautiful animal for a tradition that should end. 

Sunday Everyday

   If you long for leisurely filled days of summer or meeting people and their stories, cruising around Adriatic or Mediterranean Sea is just the thing for you. Forget tourist traps and where you shall eat, because the glories of cruising don’t stop at the views. Cruise liners have daily tours to magical destinations and you can be in a different country each day. Once the ship docks at the location go ashore for site seeing adventures by strolling around or travel on an air conditioned bus. Experience the culture, interesting food and shopping before its time to heading back.
   The ship which is your luxurious home away from home has everything you could need or want. Go to one of the many eating areas and choose from a range of food and desserts. You can then work off the calories on the top decks walking track or in the fitness centre. If you want to relax you can take a swim and lie in the sun, read a good book or go back to your cabin for a nap or a little TV. Their are many things to do on the ship apart from planning your trips ashore, eating, working out, swimming and sunning. So if you find extra time have a look at the many shops on board where products are sold at discount prices. If you feel lucky try out the casino or go to watch just for the experience. If you don't mind heights you could try rock climbing for a great view at the top or keep your feet on the ground for a game of mini golf. Looking for some more entertainment head to one of the theaters where artists will perform and entertain you until the early hours of the morning or dance the night away with the band. Try and have a reasonably early night because you need strength for more fun aboard and ashore the very next day - Bon Voyage.

Fabulous Green Cycling

   The road is full of color and shades, the scent of the season and the beautiful nature make you smile as you peddle on. The sound from the asphalt travels through the air and you look with excitement through your sunglasses as you near your destination. Cycling has inspired me a lot in life, most of which I believe that biking increases your sense of freedom and independence. The effect of biking in our surroundings is tremendous. By encouraging biking we are reducing our impact on the environment and protecting the beautiful places we work and live in everyday.         
   In our modern society, politicians are forcing different bike share programs and investing in bicycle infrastructure and facilities in cities and metro areas. The idea of a bike share program increases the interest of many people in big cities around the world. Not only is it great exercise and fantastic for your health, but it’s also an investment for the future of our planet. You don´t have to be a scientist to understand that biking prevents pollution and reduces waste. It is a great alternative form of transportation as you have bicycle lanes and at the end good parking facilities. Usually goes public transportation hand in hand with bicycle traffic, so good parking facilities at transport hubs encourage you to use your own bike, because your bike ride will help to reduce the impact on the environment and lead to a more sustainable life.  
   In a historic perspective, Horace Dobbins built the first bicycle superhighway from Pasadena to Los Angeles in 1897, when bicycling having a great time of prosperity. A few years later Horace become the Mayor of Pasadena. The bike share program started in Amsterdam as an anarchist project in the 1960´s, you just help yourself with a white second-hand painted bike and then leave it later for someone else to pick up. Today China has the largest bike share program in the world. It´s not necessary to own a new safe bike that functions to perfection in a big city. To participate in a bike share program is easy and a great value for money if you do not have your own bike, or cannot afford to by one.    
   To improving our cycling culture is to take action in your own community and encourage others to get involved with the development of a more relaxed bicycle atmosphere. Many cyclist are eager for security and adopt helmet for a safer ride. Let´s hope for more well designed network of bicycle superhighways and traffic cameras in bicycle lanes during rush hour, so a wider audience can follow the traffic in their smartphone for to know what path to take for the best journey. Your ride should give delight and pleasure, because cycling is more than transportation, it´s poetry. 
   To expanding bicycle lanes and tracks will bring more people back to cycling. Our community is founded on the principal of education and promoting action that last for a very long time. This way we have the privilege of falling in love with the place we live in and enjoy the time we spend there. Biking is providing us with a brighter future and celebrating a green way to get around cities. 

100 Days of Collection

A collector tells a story, a story about objects and its activities. One of the greatest collectors I know about is architect John Soane and artist Donald Judd. Soane lived before my time, so I don't know so much about him except for his magnificent collection and museum in Lincoln´s Inn Fields. Judd was perhaps the most influential minimal artist of his time. Despite the familiarity of his work, it is often analyzed as an isolated object and not related to its context. I had the opportunity to met Judd in Marfa when I was there on my scholarship at Chinati Foundation. To study Judd´s collection and talk to him about the art of collection was a great experience and gave me an insight in the mind of a collector. Judd let me have full access to his hole collection. I lived with them for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Today, I still think about the great opportunity I had. To walk around in his buildings and to study his marvelous collection as much as I wanted.

Judd was a warm and generous person and made shore you had everything you needed. He came to visit me in my studio when I first arrived at the Chinati Foundation and asked if the table I was working on was to small. I was very happy with my original designed  Judd 2 meter table so we moved onto another subject and I thought nothing more about it. The next day when I went to my studio I found  Judd with his sketches, a carpenter and my new 5 meter table. Judd loved his large ocean like tables and one of his studios had 4 of these. Another one of his great collections and very practical. We took a trip to Mexico to collect an award he was given. After a fantastic award ceremony with the Major we walked around the town while Judd collected ideas and inspiration on Mexican architecture and a few bottles of tequila. Judd was a living collector of memorabilia for a lifetime. Even 20 years after his death everything he touched lives on. He was not only an artist, designer or architect but so much more. I was fortunate to meet Judd in Sweden and offered a scholarship to the Chinati Foundation in Marfa. To watch him build his dream of the Foundation, his home, buildings and ranches was an opportunity of a lifetime. I had access to a living unique man, his dreams, ideas, inspiration and collection while he was creating his Utopia. Now his footprint lives on forever and ever.

As an artist I have explored different ways of seeing and perceiving. I love collections and I hate them as much, specially museum collections that tells a sleepy story of objects of a certain quality that are just accepted into the collection. My art project "100 Days of Collection" tells about memory and objects visually experience over a period of time. Through out of this time I  systematically seek and acquire objects for 100 days. Move them into a particular position to show how diversified and unique everything is. The collections are widely varied from small stones, to insect I have found inside my house. The project reveals an enormous variety of objects within each category common in our daily life. My interest lay more in investigating variations on categories rather than development toward a formal ideal, a critical attitude toward the heritage of museum collections detached from history.

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Photograph the nature of vision and see the difference between how you see reality and how the camera records it.