Walker Art Center Presents
AVANT JOIK: KATARINA BARRUK, MAJA SOLVEIG KJELSTRUP RATKJE, AND MATTI AIKIO
Saturday, March 2, 2024
8:00 pm
McGuire Theater
Presented in association with the American Swedish Institute.
Avant Joik
Vocals/Joik
KATARINA BARRUK
Vocals and Live Electronics
MAJA S.K. RATKJE
Live Visuals
MATTI AIKIO
Tonight's program will be announced from the stage.
The performance runs approximately 50 minutes without intermission.
Please join us at Walker's Cityview Bar for a reception with the artists immediately following the performance.
Program support for Avant Joik is provided by the Royal Norwegian Embassy and the Embassy of Sweden in Washington, D.C. The U.S. tour of Avant Joik is supported with funds from Music Norway.
Accessibility Notes
For more information about accessibility at the Walker, visit our Access page.
About the Ensemble
AVANT JOIK is a captivating musical ensemble that seamlessly blends the ancient art of Sámi joik with contemporary music elements. Originating from the indigenous Sámi culture of northern Scandinavia, joiking is a traditional form of vocal expression that connects individuals with nature, animals, and ancestral spirits.
The group takes this timeless tradition and infuses it with modern, electronic sounds, and innovative arrangements, creating a unique and mesmerizing auditory experience. Their performances are not only a celebration of cultural heritage but also a journey through soundscapes that bridge the gap between tradition and contemporary culture.
Avant Joik was presented for the first time at Sónar Festival in Barcelona in June 2018, as a co-production with Insomnia Festival, Tromsø. The group has performed at Sonar (Barcelona), Ultima (Oslo), BASTARD (Trondheim), Radar (Århus), Artefact (Leuven), CTM (Berlin) and Bergen Kunsthall to great critical acclaim.
About the Artists
KATARINA BARRUK, from Västerbotten, Sweden, is known as one of Sábmie’s most talented live artists. She was raised in Lusspie (Storuman) and Gajhrege (Gardfjäll) and is currently based in Ubmeje (Umeå). Barruk's unique, distinctive voice, in combination with a steadfast presence on stage creates a space of vulnerability and strength that is unlike anything else. She delivers a fierce, yet deeply down-to-earth, mix of pop music, traditional yoik, and improvisational elements.
Her powerful and unmistakably clear voice has built a captive audience over the years. The last decade Barruk has toured through Europe, giving highly appreciated concerts. In 2020 she received one of the most eligible writer and composer prizes in Sweden, SKAPs Kulturbärarpris.
Norwegian composer/musician/performer MAJA SOLVEIG KJELSTRUP RATKJE is at the forefront of the musical avant-garde. Despite its boldness and originality, her music is meant for sharing. At its heart lies Ratkje’s own voice, an open door to her individual musicianship and a constant tool for realigning her work with natural expressions and human truths.
In 2002, she released the album Voice, a catalogue of previously unexplored vocal production techniques fused with electronics that was awarded the Prix Ars Electronica. Ratkje’s exploration of the voice as an instrument came to maturity in Concerto for Voice (2004), commissioned by Radio France. Her music has links her to Norwegian identity and politics (Ro-Uro, 2014), to her beloved Japanese culture (gagaku variations, 2002), to children under the age of three (Høyt oppe i fjellet, 2011) and to instruments as varied as the viol consort (River Mouth Echoes, 2008) and the world’s largest mobile horn speaker system (Desibel, 2009).
Ratkje’s work Waves IIb was awarded Norway’s coveted Edvard Prize and was further honored by UNESCO and the International Rostrum of Composers in Paris. Ratkje was the inaugural winner of the Arne Nordheim Prize and was nominated for the Nordic Council Music Prize in 2013. She has been Composer-In-Residence at numerous institutions and festivals, has contributed to more than 100 albums and has written music for dance, radio plays, and gallery installations. She is a member of the Akademie der Künste in Berlin.
MATTI AIKIO is a Sámi visual artist and activist rooted in Finnish Sápmi. His work intricately explores the aftermath of colonial contact zones between Danish-Norwegian, Swedish, and Norwegian settlers and the Sámi people. Drawing from his background in Sámi reindeer herding culture, Aikio delves into pressing issues exploring the history of land rights, skillfully blending moving images, sound, text and still imagery in his installations. Aikio’s art becomes a powerful lens that illuminates the complexities of Sámi heritage and global indigenous challenges, inviting viewers into a world where culture, history, and activism intersect.
His work has been presented in multiple venues including Helsinki Biennial, Botkyrka Konsthall, Cairo Off Biennale, and the National Museum of Finland. In 2022, he was named a Fellow at the TBA-21 Ocean Space, Venice, Italy and in 2023 a Fellow at Vera List Center for Art and Politics, New York, USA.
Learn More
See work by Matti Aikio and other featured artists in the American Swedish Institute’s exhibition Arctic Highways: Unbounded Indigenous People, presenting the photography, duodji handcraft, sculpture, textile, and moving image works of 12 Indigenous artists from Sápmi and North America. Arctic Highways shares stories of Indigenous People who live on different continents yet regard themselves as kindred spirits. Each artist tells their own stories, through their own forms of expression, inviting opportunities to explore what it means to be unbounded—not just for Indigenous People, but for all of us.
Living Land Acknowledgement
The McGuire Theater and Walker Art Center are located on the contemporary, traditional, and ancestral homelands of the Dakota people. Situated near Bde Maka Ska and Wíta Tópa Bde, or Lake of the Isles, on what was once an expanse of marshland and meadow, this site holds meaning for Dakota, Ojibwe, and Indigenous people from other Native nations, who still live in the community today.
We acknowledge the discrimination and violence inflicted on Indigenous peoples in Minnesota and the Americas, including forced removal from ancestral lands, the deliberate destruction of communities and culture, deceptive treaties, war, and genocide. We recognize that, as a museum in the United States, we have a colonial history and are beneficiaries of this land and its resources. We acknowledge the history of Native displacement that allowed for the founding of the Walker. By remembering this dark past, we recognize its continuing harm in the present and resolve to work toward reconciliation, systemic change, and healing in support of Dakota people and the land itself.
We honor Native people and their relatives, past, present, and future. As a cultural organization, the Walker works toward building relationships with Native communities through artistic and educational programs, curatorial and community partnerships, and the presentation of new work.
Walker Art Center Acknowledgments
Walker Art Center Producers' Council
About the Walker Art Center
Media Partner
To learn more about upcoming performances, visit 2023/24 Walker Performing Arts Season.
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