The Sámi in Two Nordic Art Projects: Mattias Olofsson’s Stor-Stina and Jorma Puranen’s Imaginary Homecoming

Summary: This paper examines how representations of the Sámi emerge in the art of two contemporary Nordic artists, Mattias Olofsson and Jorma Puranen. It compares Olofsson’s performances of Stor-Stina (1999-present) with Puranen’s Imaginary Homecoming (1991-97), showing how their projects convey and simultaneously attempt to dismantle a settler mentality. Through the comparison, the paper argues for the critical discernment of how art may reproduce a colonial framework so that we may break our habitual ways of imagining the world.