Artica Svalbard: 10 Years

A film marking the tenth anniversary of Artica Svalbard, an international artist and writer residency based in Longyearbyen, one of the world's northernmost permanently inhabited settlements.

Rather than approaching the anniversary as a conventional history of the organisation, the film looks back at Artica’s first decade through the people who have shaped it: artists, writers, founders, collaborators and members of the local community.

Filmed across Svalbard and mainland Norway, the interviews explore what it means to arrive and work in a place like Svalbard, the relationships that develop between visiting artists and the community, and how Artica itself has evolved over its first ten years.

The film combines new interviews with archive material, photography and work produced through Artica’s residency programme, building a portrait of the organisation through individual memories and experiences rather than a chronological account.

Directed, filmed and edited by Tom Warner

Additional photography and archive material courtesy of contributing artists and photographers.

Commissioned by Artica Svalbard, 2026.