As Trump Turns Attention to the Arctic, a UK Artist Prepares to Cross Its Borderlands
As global debate intensifies over Arctic territory and resources, Bristol-based theatre-maker Tom Bailey will undertake a two-month, ultra-slow journey across Nordic borderlands — turning contested geography into a live performance experiment.
With Arctic sovereignty back in the headlines and renewed international interest in Greenland and northern trade routes, the world’s northernmost regions are once again under scrutiny. At the same moment, Bristol-based theatre-maker Tom Bailey is preparing to cross more than 600 kilometres of Arctic borderland — not as an expedition, but as a long-form performance project shaped by movement, distance and place.
Threshold – A Wild New Border Journey begins on 10 March 2026 and will unfold over two months. Travelling by ski, sled, foot and boat, Bailey will move west from Kirkenes in northern Norway, close to the Russia–Finland–Norway border, through parts of Finland and Sweden before finishing at the Stamsund International Theatre Festival in Norway’s Lofoten Islands in May.
The timing is pointed. As ice retreats and previously inaccessible routes and resources become viable, Arctic territory has re-entered global political conversation. Recent rhetoric around Greenland has only sharpened attention on the region as both strategic asset and contested space.
Bailey’s response is deliberately physical and slow. Rather than approaching these debates from a distance, the project is built around the act of crossing itself. The journey traces areas where national borders overlap with Indigenous land, animal migration routes and fragile ecosystems — places where political lines sit uneasily against lived reality.
Along the way, Bailey will meet local communities, artists and researchers, holding workshops and conversations across the Nordic north. These encounters will feed directly into a new performance work, with material gathered during the journey shaping both its content and form.
The project also questions how international performance circulates. Instead of rapid touring between festivals, Threshold unfolds over weeks of travel, allowing time, geography and physical effort to dictate the rhythm of the work. As Bailey progresses, the visual and spatial design of the eventual performance will be developed in parallel by company designer Natasha Soonchild, working from Kirkenes.
Public engagement begins in February 2026 with workshops at Barents Spektakel, an international arts festival in northern Norway. The journey itself concludes on 27 May 2026 at Stamsund International Theatre Festival, where Bailey will share early material gathered along the route.
Produced by UK theatre company Mechanimal, Threshold is developed with partners in Norway and Denmark, including dramaturg Gulli Sekse and Aarhus-based ILT Festival. The project is supported by Arts Council England, Arts Council Norway and the Danish Arts Foundation, alongside cultural climate organisation Julie’s Bicycle.
At a time when Arctic land is increasingly discussed in terms of ownership, access and control, Threshold offers a different approach — one grounded in presence rather than policy, and shaped by the experience of moving through contested space rather than claiming it.
Threshold – A Wild New Border Journey
What: A two-month performance journey across Arctic borderlands
Who: Tom Bailey / Mechanimal
Where: Arctic Norway, Finland and Sweden
Start: 10 March 2026 (following workshops at Barents Spektakel, 19–22 February)
End: 27 May 2026, Stamsund International Theatre Festival, Lofoten Islands
Format: Ultra-slow journey by ski, sled, foot and boat, with workshops and public sharings
Premiere of full performance: 2027
Elena Leo is the Culture & Lifestyle Editor of Ikon London Magazine.
