As part of Nordic Alliance of Artists’ Residencies on Climate Action (NAARCA), the artist and writer Nikhil Vettukattil is currently staying at NIRS

As part of our collaboration with The Nordic Alliance of Artists’ Residencies on Climate Action(NAARCA), the artist and writer Nikhil Vettukattil is currently staying at Narsaq International Research Station. Nikhil is born in Bengaluru, India and lives and works in Oslo.

While in residence at Narsaq International Research Station he will develop a new piece of work that will incorporate research on food production and distribution in the high North and its relation to the climate crisis.

What kind of diet is sustainable and good for health and low CO2 in the Nordic environment, Scandinavian countries, but also Japan, Russia, Sapmi and Turtle Island (Canada) and Greenland?

He is curious to learn about life, culture and diet, hunting and cooking in Greenland, and to meet with people who work with food and plants. He uses a mix of old and new methods, looking at what people did before industrialisation as well as agriculture. Part of his project is making a cookbook that will be free to share. He is also embroidering second hand clothes with recipes as a way to share them.

His work has been exhibited in Kunsthall Oslo (2022), Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo (2022), K-U-K, Trondheim (2021), CAPC, Bordeaux (2021), Art Hub Copenhagen (2021), K4 Galleri, Oslo (2021), Louise Dany, Oslo (2020), EKA Gallery, Tallinn (2020), Kristiansand Kunsthall (2020), and Le Bourgeois, London (2019). Forthcoming exhibitions include Counterimaginaries at Tromsø Kunstforening (February 2023), and a duo show with Halvor Rønning at FELIX GAUDLITZ, Vienna (May 2023). He is a member of the art collectives Tenthaus and Carrie, as well as a part of Atelier Kunstnerforbundet and the Institute for Scene Experiments. As part of Tenthaus, he will co-curate the MOMENTUM 12 Biennale opening May 2023.