VU Artist 2026
Published 2 March 2026
This year’s festival artist for the Vinterfestuka is Per Heimly! Visit the art exhibition “Narvik in France” at Narvik Museum!
16 March 2026
Vinterfestuka (Winter festival) in Narvik is underway, and on Saturday 14 March it was finally ready for the grand exhibition opening at Narvik Museum of this year’s Vinterfestuka art exhibition! This year’s festival artist is Per Heimly, who is originally from Snubba in Evenes municipality.
Vinterfestuka turns 70 years old in 2026, and the anniversary is celebrated big. The festival started in 1956 as Fransk festival (French Festival) that marked the good bond between France and Narvik that was forged during the battles for Narvik in 1940.
In the anniversary year, the Winter Festival Week Foundation highlights this history through the project “Narvik in France”, an extensive art and documentation project developed in collaboration with the Narvik Centre Foundation and Narvik Museum. The project examines how the memories of Narvik have become ingrained in the French landscape, and how these historical connections are still kept alive in communities in the far south of Europe. At the same time, we want to create an artistic dialogue between the past and the present, where history becomes accessible to a broad audience in new ways.
Read more about the project
The exhibition opening of “Narvik i Frankrike” (“Narvik in France”) by Per Heimly started with a photo session on the red carpet with the artist himself, general manager of the Winter Festival Week Frode Sollie, and France’s ambassador to Norway, Florence Robine. The ambassador was accompanied by six French cadets to the exhibition opening. The Svarta Bjørn representatives and “vektere” also posed for photos.
Inside the exhibition, speeches were given by Frode Sollie, the French ambassador and artist Per Heimly. The guests also got to hear great music from Musikk i Nordland. The ambassador cut the ribbon and declared the exhibition open.
After the ribbon cutting, there was mingling, something good in the glass and the opportunity to take pictures in front of the selfie wall in the museum shop.
