Kvalnes
Kvalnes is situated in the middle of Lofoten, a quiet place at the foot of steep mountains facing the ocean with spectacular views of the North Sea. In the summer, we can follow the sun's movement around the clock. In the dark evenings from early fall until late winter, the northern lights play across the sky.
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Villa Lofoten offers overnight stays combined with cultural experiences in a historical environment.
We invite our guests, tourists as well as artists, to join in creating new life in the authentic houses that once belonged to the fishermen at Kvalnes. Through new approaches and diverse media, we facilitate the production of narrative projects that focus on cultural and natural history. Activities at Villa Lofoten are based on rural values, individual knowledge and cooperation.
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Villa Lofoten AIR offers guest stays for artists, researchers and artisans, from Norway as well as from the rest of the world. In this way, we contribute to public conversation, freedom of expression and democracy. Our guests engage in a dialogue with the environment.
They thematise social issues, the past and the future, nature and culture, beliefs and sexuality.
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Their diverse narratives are actualised through issues such as the conflict between the rural and the urbane, the antagonism between consumption and sustainability, the ambivalence between the old and the new, and the tension between freedom and free trade. They present their stories through sound and architecture, notching and plant colouring, film and photography, astrophysics and history, textile and text.
In our films, we explore the intersection of modern everyday life and historical cultural processes. Villa Lofoten produces it's own films, we are a co-producer and host others’ productions.
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At Villa Lofoten you can live in a historical farm and in listed harbour buildings.
In earlier times these buildings were vital in allowing those who lived here to use local resources in a sustainable way. Since time immemorial people in Lofoten have survived through a combination of fishing and farming.
At Villa Lofoten, projects and workshops are arranged with the aim of bringing out local resources and bring people together with a wish to share their knowledge. Here melting pots as well as meeting places are created for local knowledge and international currents, the known and the unknown, the short term and the long lasting.
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While many participants are adults and highly qualified, a primary goal of these productions is to encourage the participation of young people with interests in rural values – often in combination with workshops for children and teenagers.
