Abstract
As Norway’s Cultural Municipality 2025–2027, Kristiansund has chosen The Arctic World Archive to preserve a new dance film artwork that captures the living cultural voice of the city. Created with around 100 inhabitants and professional artists, the work weaves together stories, music, movement, and letters to the future.
About Kristiansund
Kristiansund is a cultural city in Norway where identity is shaped by music, heritage, and the sea. The city sits on five islands connected by bridges and the historic Sundbåten ferry, which has operated since 1876.
For centuries, people here have lived from the ocean. Timber trade and, later, clipfish production from the late 1600s built long-lasting international connections, particularly with Southern Europe. Along these sea routes came cultural impulses such as music, theatre, and opera.
Opera has been performed in Kristiansund since 1805, and The Opera in Kristiansund was founded in 1928. In 2025, the new Opera and Cultural Centre Normoria opened. Kristiansund is also a reconstruction city with modernist architecture and a dance city, known for its dance education, professional dance artists, and large community-based projects that connect young people, seniors, and local institutions across generations.
In 2025, Kristiansund was awarded the title of Norway’s Cultural Municipality 2025–2027 — an honour that now extends to leaving a cultural trace in the Arctic World Archive.
The Deposit
As part of the national award, Kristiansund received storage space in the Arctic World Archive (AWA). The municipality is depositing a new dance film artwork that captures the cultural voice of Kristiansund today, combining stories, music, movement, and letters to the future, created together with inhabitants of all ages and professional artists.
The project is led by Tendai Makurumbandi, an internationally experienced choreographer and cultural leader, and Heine Schølberg, a cultural entrepreneur and creative producer with national recognition.
Around 100 inhabitants and artists are involved — youth, seniors, dancers, writers, musicians, and the Kristiansund Symphony Orchestra. The film is set in iconic locations across the city, including Normoria, urban spaces, memorial sites, and the coastal landscape.
The project is supported by Møre og Romsdal County Council, SpareBank 1 Nordmøre, and Sparebankstiftelsen Nordmøre, reflecting strong public–private collaboration in culture.
Ambition and Why Piql
Kristiansund’s ambition was to gather and preserve its unique cultural heritage in a single artistic work, and to share it with future generations. Digital cultural expressions are fragile and risk being lost as technology changes.
The municipality chose Piql because it offers secure, long-term, and technology-independent preservation. Piql ensures that Kristiansund’s cultural voice can be read, experienced, and understood far into the future, even if today’s digital systems no longer exist.
Photo: Heine Schølberg. For more information, visit the Kristiansund Municipality website.
