Gold and Green Forests: An Interior Farce Bella Rune and Jonas Nobel

Kin’s artists-in-residence Bella Rune and Jonas Nobel present their new site-specific work Gold and Green Forests: An Interior Farce. Is it a station, a noticeboard, or a sculpture—or is it all three at once?

The new work is based and modeled on the interior of the Kristallen City Hall. The artwork, located in the new City Hall, is built out of materials leftover from Kin’s previous exhibitions and it expresses the same loyalty to craftsmanship and manual labor as Kiruna’s old City Hall once did. The choice of colors is inspired by the woven wall hangings (ranor) that were found in the now-demolished building. To further accentuate its details and charm, the artists have also borrowed a preserved lamp, a coat hook, and part of a wooden balustrade, incorporating them into their new work. Other elements incorporated into the sceners consist of materials that derive from the workshops they held in Norrbotten during 2025.

In Gold and Green Forests: An Interior Farce, Bella Rune and Jonas Nobel draw on the production structures of theatre and film, where collaboration with many people is a cornerstone. But while the collaborators listed in a film’s end credits usually remain hidden behind the scenes, the artists allow them to step into the foreground. Analogue special effects—among them ghostly reflections and invisible stagehands—are interwoven with the farce’s comical entanglements in interior scenes where the performers shift between being set design, costume, sound, and special effects. With its many doors, sightlines across different levels, and varied functions, Kiruna’s new City Hall becomes simply the perfect stage for a physical farce.

Gold and Green Forests: An Interior Farce will develop at the Kin Museum of Contemporary Art over the course of the coming years. Bella Rune and Jonas Nobel were artists-in-residence at Kin from October 27 to November 30, 2025, during which time the participatory aspect of the project was also a key focus. Over the past year, they have led a sculpture studio at the art camp of Älvsbyn Folkhögskola, organized an art camp at Kin, and held workshops at schools in Abisko and Jukkasjärvi as well as at Happis Arts and Crafts, Sunderby Folkhögskola,

The project is part of the EU-funded project ICCE—Cultural Centers for Everyone.