Art and engagement with the Cold War in Shetland and its northern neighbours

Description

For more than ten years the Shetland-based visual artists and social art practitioners Roxane Permar and Susan Timmins have worked in collaboration to explore memories and perceptions of the Cold War across the northern and Arctic region by recovering little known stories of the period. Through socially engaged art projects, exhibitions, and public engagement they collect, record, and share material across the circumpolar north. The memories they gather and present give personal insight into activities and places, such as the early warning radar sites operated by NATO.

Their work extends our sense of the Cold War period not only as it exists physically in the northern landscape but in the memory. It reveals hidden stories behind the Cold War, or the imaginary war (Kaldor, 1990; Grant and Ziemann, 2016), which dominated the 20th century, polarised the world and presented the nuclear threat amidst a growing nuclear culture. Permar and Timmins generate discussion about the nuclear threat across generations. They strive to find ways that art can help to re-imagine this period and give insight into the impact that Cold War military installations have had on local populations.

For decades Permar and Timmins have been based in Shetland, an archipelago of more than 100 islands in the North Atlantic, yet they grew up in North America in the shadow of the atomic bomb. Shetland’s geographical position means that at different times in its history it has been of importance militarily; its architectural landscape reflects this past. The presentation will provide an overview of their work across a ten year period including a range of media, e.g, film, photography, sound, textiles and digital gaming, embedded within socially engaged and place based projects.

The equipment used in the NATO early warning defence system across North America, Greenland, Iceland, Faroe and Europe has been removed, and the remaining bunkers and buildings are largely derelict; these remains from the Cold War period hold archaeological value. They contribute to the living landscape, cultural heritage and historic identity they played throughout the Cold War period. Surviving sites form the content and backdrop for much of the art work in Cold War Projects, particularly the film and photographic installation Countdown, and the socially engaged project, Recount, which features former volunteers from the Royal Observer Corps who operated a system of UK civil defence posts.

Today we face increasing instability, both internationally and in the UK. The Russian invasion of Ukraine increases the relevance and meaning of ongoing work around questions posed by the Cold War as current conflicts introduce a new dimension to societal threats for the 21st century.  Permar and Timmins work through social and creative engagement to place the nuclear threat from the Cold War period alongside new contemporary threats, such as the coronavirus pandemic, cyberterrorism and climate change. The geopolitics of these threats demands imaginative and socially just solutions that contribute to mutual understanding and a stable future.

Cold War Projects underlines the importance of finding imaginative ways to communicate the impacts of societal threats and to use the arts to raise awareness of the urgency of these issues.   Nordic Connections, the most recent project, realised in collaboration with Norwegian partners, emphasised the value of working together and the importance of learning about global issues from different international perspectives, including older generations and young people. An interdisciplinary approach that brought together the arts, environmental science, cultural heritage and immersive technology, enabling young to people gain insight into ways forward for a better, more sustainable future.

Through their creative vision and outputs, Permar and Timmins bring Cold War histories into the nuclear present, and future. Their work provides a timely reminder of the nuclear threat, highlighting the continuing relevance of the Cold War period, particularly for younger generations. It reveals the importance of dialogue as a means to listen and learn from each other. They ask what lessons we can learn from our nuclear past during the Cold War period to help understand the threat posed by conflict in our current century, inform future generations and make a safer world.

'Cold War: Collective Memory and Identity' was a research conference organised by the Norwegian Aviation Museum in Bodø. The conference was part of the research project "Stories from Cold War Hotspots," a bilateral project exploring our common European understanding of the Cold War today. The conference addressed themes related to how the Cold War has contributed to shaping national identities, cultural heritage, and the societies we live in today.

Period	5 Jun 2024
Event title	Cold War: Collective Memory and Identity
Event type	Conference
Location	Bodø, NorwayShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International