ARCTIC GARDEN, 2024, HD video, colour, sound, 32 minutes 50 seconds

What kind of garden unfurls at the world’s northernmost settlement, sitting 78 degrees north and seeing temperatures drop below -27ºC? How can plants survive the long winter when the sea, land and sky are covered with heavy snow and the sun has not risen for months? A garden in the Arctic – is it an unobtainable dream or a worthwhile pursuit? 

By observing, meditating and imagining, ARCTIC GARDEN journeys through a world where ‘one shade melts into the other’ and seeks a utopian garden where ‘they are all there’: a place where there are no boundaries of space and time (Fridtjof Nansen, Farthest North, 1897).



A film project by Ellie Kyungran Heo (director, co-writer) and Louise Rapley (producer, co-writer)
Starring Plants, A Reindeer, Olaf Storø, Siv Limstrand, Adrian Pop and Samantha Paige Huset Dwinnell
Sound Mixed at Thenaeun Sound
Svalbard Coordinator Julia Wellner
Special thanks to the participants, Elizabeth Bourne, Karen Kviberg Creagh, Marieke van Rooy, Ralph Wetli and Leon Platt
Supported by April Film (Norway) and Arts Council England (UK)