The Art VAPO project is an art-based investigation into «What North is». Using the term Nordicity(nothernness) coined by the Canadian geographer Louis-Edmond Hamelin, the project explores the concept of Nordicity in artistic expressions in and through music and performance. The project questions and embody different dimensions of the degree of Nordicity in performing arts in circumpolar regions.

Seen from the North Pole, the geographic boundaries for what North is, seems obvious. Still, geographers have been studying the extreme differences in the areas that have the same latitude, and recognised the need to differentiate the «northernness» of the circumpolar territories of the world. 

The understanding of what North is, have been established through stories and myths from both the people of the North, visitors, and peoples that have never been here. «The arts help us illuminate similarities and understand differences. It is an eternal wave that pushes us to rethink our self. Again, and again» (Utsi 2016). In the Art VAPO project we confront the stereotypies and established opinions of the North through concerts and performance-rallies, and by engaging different audiences to actively take part. A variety of composers, performance artists, theorists, and musicians experiment and explore Art Nordicity using humor, sincerity, and satire combined with love and respect for Northern spaces.