Celebrating Arctic Beauty and Indigenous Culture Through Innovative Design

In 2020, Lorem Ipsum was commissioned to create a temporary exhibit showcasing the unique beauty and rich indigenous culture of the Yamal Peninsula in the Arctic. We created “Yamal: The Warmth of the Arctic,” an immersive experience highlighting Yamal’s warmth beyond its Arctic location. The exhibit explores the culture of the indigenous northern peoples, the oil and gas industry, and the region’s history.

In 2020, Lorem Ipsum was commissioned to create a temporary exhibit showcasing the unique beauty and rich indigenous culture of the Yamal Peninsula in the Arctic. We created “Yamal: The Warmth of the Arctic,” an immersive experience highlighting Yamal’s warmth beyond its Arctic location. The exhibit explores the culture of the indigenous northern peoples, the oil and gas industry, and the region’s history.

The exhibition features 19 large snow globes transformed into multifunctional spaces with artistic installations, multimedia programs, historical artifacts, and interactive objects. Each globe tells a unique story, conceptualized and produced by the Lorem Ipsum team. We used a special type of foamed polyethylene and impellers to create a “fairytale blizzard” effect.

The sphere “Northern Express” is an interactive exhibit that invites visitors to choose two ports in different hemispheres of the planet and determine the fastest route between them. The map outlines twenty five different sea routes, with the Northern Sea Route always proving to be the quickest.

The sphere “New Voice” is inspired by a famous Nenets poem. It depicts deer soaring into the air and transforming into cranes, flying over the white earth-drum. This art object was created using highly precise 3D printers capable of producing the finest details.

The interactive sphere “Sounds of the North” invites visitors on a journey through radio waves of the past and present. Visitors select one of the musical compositions recorded over the last ninety years, and the corresponding audio plays. Meanwhile, the needle and lighting on an authentic radio receiver inside the snow globe react synchronously, thanks to processors hand-assembled specifically for this exhibit.

The sphere “Royal Berry” tells the story of the tundra cloudberry, a natural treasure of Yamal. The cloudberry model is surrounded by magnifying glasses, transforming the berry into a work of art and a valuable museum artifact that visitors can examine in detail from all angles.

The sphere “Foundation of Life,” which tells about the traditions of the indigenous peoples of Yamal, The sphere “Foundation of Life,” which explores the traditions of the indigenous peoples of Yamal, features an artistic installation made from an enlarged model of reindeer antlers. The antlers were then hand-painted with symbols that illustrate the significance of the reindeer in the daily life and beliefs of the region’s indigenous peoples.

The sphere “Life in the Stream” is dedicated to Yamal’s fishing industry. Here, visitors can observe swimming muksun fry and learn about how the employees of the Yamal fish hatchery contribute to the restoration of their population.

The sphere “In Harmony with Nature” features a scaled model of a small section of the bridge over the Yuribey River in Yamal. In this section, there is a gyrfalcon nest with several eggs, symbolizing the harmony between civilization with its unique infrastructure and the pristine nature of the region.

The sphere “Cutting Through the Ice” showcases a large model of the Yamalmax-class tanker Christophe de Margerie—the first of fifteen icebreaking tankers designed for navigating Arctic waters.

The sphere “Snowflake” is dedicated to the exploration and study of the Arctic regions. Here, visitors can see a detailed model of the Arctic station Snowflake, which is set to open in 2022.

The sphere “Powering Life: Yamal’s Natural Gas” showcases the critical contributions of Yamal’s natural gas to modern life and industry. This exhibit displays a variety of everyday objects, from toothbrushes to a Tu-155 airplane, made possible by natural gas. It demonstrates how natural gas is essential for cooking, powering industrial furnaces, generating electricity, and transforming into raw materials for products like plastic, rubber, and paint.

The sphere “A Treasure Hunt,” dedicated to oil and gas industry technologies, illustrates geological layers and gas well drilling. It is one of the largest and heaviest objects in the exhibition, weighing around 270 kilograms. The underground rock layers are made of transparent colored acrylic, bonded with epoxy resin, and machined.

The exhibition concludes with a zone where visitors can take photos against the backdrop of the Yamal The exhibition concludes with a zone where visitors can take photos against the backdrop of the Yamal Northern Lights, creating the impression that they are inside a snow globe, taking a piece of Yamal’s warmth with them.