At Art Café Tromsø: Connections by Ivonne Wilken

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Cheryl Marie Cordeiro and Ivonne Wilken, Art Café, Tromsø, Norway 2019

At Art Café with Ivonne Wilken in Tromsø, Norway. Ivonne is a writer and artist. Her sculpture exhibition titled “Connections” is currently on display at Art Café, Richard Withs plass 2, 9008 Tromsø, through the months of August and September 2019.
Text & Photo © Art Café, T. Altintzoglou, JE Nilsson & CM Cordeiro 2019

I met Ivonne Wilken about a year ago, not long after I moved to Tromsø. Born in Emmen, Netherlands, Ivonne studied journalism in Zwolle and anthropology/criminology in Utrecht. She’s a writer, writing in both Dutch and English. You can find her book published in English titled VIS-A-VIS available in Kindle version. She’s also an artist. Her sculpture collection currently on display at Art Café is titled Connections, and it’s a personal exploration and expression of relationships.

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Skrei season in the north of Norway

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Skrei season in Norway is during January to April each year. This is when the fish arrives to the northern coast of Norway in order to spawn. In Northern Norway, this seasonal fish is traditionally served as a dish called mølje. As such the fish is boiled together with its liver and roe and served with a side of potatoes and carrots. This particular skrei was captured at Lofoten and bought at the main market square in Tromsø, Norway.
Text & Photo © JE Nilsson & CM Cordeiro 2019

The Norwegian skrei season is a miracle that repeats itself.

For those few unfortunate that are not yet familiar with skrei, it is a North-East Arctic cod that lives in the Barents Sea, in an area enclosed between Franz Josef Land on the north, Novaya Zemlya on the east, and Svalbard on the west. Skrei is the Norwegian word for wanderer.

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Valentine’s at Graffi Grill Tromsø

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Text & Photo © JE Nilsson & CM Cordeiro 2019

The roses were brought out in most flower boutiques here in Tromsø on Sunday 10 February 2019. It was in celebration of Mother’s Day in Norway. The Feast of Saint Valentine which falls on 14 February in celebration of love and friendship, seems a fairly understated affair in Norway, and in particular as observed, in this city in the Arctic Circle. In a walkabout the city centre prior to dinner, I came across one of my favourite flower boutiques. There was a significant absence of bouquets of roses for the Feast of St Valentine’s. The shop had for ready-made bouquets, clusters of chrysanthemum and lily blooms. Roses were available but firmly potted. In Gothenburg, I loved to have tulips at this time of year sitting on the kitchen table in a vase. In Tromsø, four metre high snow walls built from clearing snow off the sidewalks and driveways is not encouraging weather for tulips, even in vases. I did however, bring home a new pet plant from that shop, a ficus elastica robusta.

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Spark, a traditional form of Nordic transportation, Tromsø, Norway

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On a Spark (kicksled) in Tromsø, Norway.
Text & Photo © JE Nilsson & CM Cordeiro 2019

The Swedish and Norwegian word spark means kick in English. This ‘winter walker’ has been a small, more lightweight form of transportation since the mid-1800s for the wintry landscapes of northern Scandinavia. An observation between the city of Gothenburg located along the southern southwest coast of Sweden and the Arctic Circle city of Tromsø is how much less gravelling of the snow is done here as compared to Gothenburg. This also means that in the northern regions of Scandinavia, kicksleds come more into use, facilitating longer distances and heavier carrying loads. These kicksleds are crafted from wood, where the seat in front of the kicksled could comfortably accommodate a child whom you’d want along with you if you were in a smaller town or village on a half day’s errand to the market or nearest grocers. In today’s context, kicksleds are used more for recreational purposes, like on this Saturday afternoon, the perfect time to går på tur along the snowy waterfront of this island.

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Tromsø International Snow Festival 2019, Norway

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The Tromsø International Snow Festival 2019, 26 January 2019, Stortorget, Tromsø, Norway.
Text & Photo © JE Nilsson & CM Cordeiro 2019

It was just about a week ago, almost immediately following the final movie screenings of the Tromsø International Film Festival (TIFF) 2019 that the large market square in the city centre was cleared and up sprang these carved ice-sculptures. Lit in various neon colours for a fantastic light and ice display, these ice sculptures certainly brightened and complemented the still darkened winter sky in this Arctic Circle city.

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Tromsø International Film Festival, TIFF 2019, Norway

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At the Edge Sky Bar, Clarion Hotel, for the Tromsø International Film Festival (TIFF 2019), Tromsø, Norway. DJ for the TIFF 2019 evening event is Christian Bruun.
Text & Photo © JE Nilsson & CM Cordeiro 2019

The 29th Tromsø International Film Festival (TIFF 2019) is currently ongoing in this Arctic Circle city. Beginning on 14 January and ending on 20 January, the film festival is expected to see over 60 000 thousand visitors to the city of Tromsø. TIFF 2019 draws both local and international visitors to its annual event. It is also an important meeting space / platform for Norway’s local film industry to meet with its international network. An important socio-economic catalyst, in 2018, the film festival generated 26 million NOK in related activities for the local community [1].

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Knekkebrød, a Norwegian variety

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Knekkebrød, a Norwegian variety made with different seeds.
Text & Photo © JE Nilsson & CM Cordeiro 2019

A tiny brown paper package that contained some crispbread / knekkebrød turned up at my kitchen table counter top during a gathering in early December 2018. Next to that was the cheese platter, laid out with different types of honey, fruit marmalade and jam. I assumed that the crispbread was a variety of Wasabröd, except this version was peppered with different types of seed. Wasabröd is a crispbread that is quite ubiquitous in Sweden and I usually pay little attention to it as a food item when grocery shopping. Why eat that when you can have intoxicating kanelbullar dribbled with pearl sugar?

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