The Sámi Architecture Library by Joar Nango and collaborators at the Nordic Countries Pavilion @ Venice Architecture Biennale 2023 - Photo by Laurian Ghinițoiu.

‘Girjegumpi – The Sámi Architecture Library’ by Joar Nango and collaborators at the Nordic Countries Pavilion @ Venice Architecture Biennale 2023 – All photos by Laurian Ghinițoiu.

Architecture – In the past 15 years, architect and artist Joar Nango has created a traveling library that contains books, artworks, materials, design details, and found objects about Indigenous Sámi architecture. This year, Nango and his collaborators bring the library to the Venice Architecture Biennale with the exhibition Girjegumpi: The Sámi Architecture Library at the Nordic Pavilion, co-owned by Sweden, Finland, and Norway.

The Sámi Architecture Library by Joar Nango and collaborators at the Nordic Countries Pavilion @ Venice Architecture Biennale 2023 - Photo by Laurian Ghinițoiu.

Visitors can consult books, discover Sámi crafts and designs, and find out more about Nordic indigenous culture and folklore. Most importantly, they can learn about the importance of collaborative work, building techniques and use of resources in rapidly changing climate conditions, the use of locally grounded material flow, and sensitive approaches to landscapes and nature.

The Sámi Architecture Library by Joar Nango and collaborators at the Nordic Countries Pavilion @ Venice Architecture Biennale 2023 - Photo by Laurian Ghinițoiu.

The Sámi are indigenous people inhabiting the northern regions of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia’s Kola Peninsula. “Sámi people are colonised, but our lands are still being expropriated.” Explained Joar Nango. “Venice is a great opportunity to give  voice to their narratives, tuning with this year’s main focus on decolonization and decarbonization.” Girjegumpi highlights the architect’s position towards a more polyphonic understanding of the world.

The Sámi Architecture Library by Joar Nango and collaborators at the Nordic Countries Pavilion @ Venice Architecture Biennale 2023 - Photo by Laurian Ghinițoiu.

Commissioned by ArkDes, Sweden’s National Centre for Architecture and Design, the Girjegumpi exhibition has been conceived “as a gathering space for large groups of people. As a reading room, it offers an environment for solitary study and reflection. As a critical project, it builds spaces for Indigenous imagination.” Explain curators Carlos Mínguez Carrasco and James Taylor-Foster.

The Sámi Architecture Library by Joar Nango and collaborators at the Nordic Countries Pavilion @ Venice Architecture Biennale 2023 - Photo by Laurian Ghinițoiu.

The word Girjegumpi is derived from two Northern Sámi words: girji, meaning book, and gumpi – a small mobile reindeer herder cabin on sledges, often pulled by a snowmobile. This wordplay refers to a library, an archive, and the construction in which these are stored and transported.

The Sámi Architecture Library by Joar Nango and collaborators at the Nordic Countries Pavilion @ Venice Architecture Biennale 2023 - Photo by Laurian Ghinițoiu.

All photos by Laurian Ghinițoiu, courtesy of ArkDes and the Nordic Pavilion at Venice Biennale.

The Sámi Architecture Library by Joar Nango and collaborators at the Nordic Countries Pavilion @ Venice Architecture Biennale 2023 - Photo by Laurian Ghinițoiu.