2023
SVALBARD: Silent Games
For almost a century, Norwegians, Russians, and Ukrainians have competed in friendly sports competitions on the world's northernmost inhabited land, Svalbard. Neither the Cold War nor the collapse of the USSR ever interrupted the exchanges. Today, for the first time, the competitions were halted.
The photographic project "SVALBARD: Silent Game ” was conceived in conjunction with the making of the documentary film of the same name directed by Francesco Biscaglia and Nicolò Voltolini of Red Sheep Studio, which was presented in April 2025 at the Trento Film Festival.
Photographer Andrea Saltori oversaw the photographic production in parallel with the filming of the documentary, with the aim of documenting both the Svalbard territory and the people who inhabit it. The initiative was a collaboration between the film production studio Red Sheep, the Europe Creative Media funding program and the North Pole Expedition Museum.
The main purpose of the photography project was to create an exhibition at the North Pole Expedition Museum in Longyearbyen, the northernmost museum in the world. In this exhibition context, the visitor's experience was enriched by a multisensory journey: while observing the landscape photographs, the audience could listen to recordings of environmental sounds from Svalbard; audio excerpts and transcripts of interviews collected during the production of the film were available alongside portraits of local subjects.
In sum, Andrea Saltori developed a photographic project designed from the outset to integrate with the documentary, offering a visual and aural narrative that returns an authentic account of the reality of Svalbard and its inhabitants.
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