Beginning on 10th March 2026, Tom Bailey will embark on a 600 km, two-month expedition by ski, sled, foot, and boat in an ultra-low-carbon performance journey across Arctic Norway, Finland and Sweden, documenting his experiences on the way to the Stamsund International Theatre Festival in the Lofoten Islands in May 2026.
Threshold a 600km ultra-slow journey across Arctic borderlands by artist Tom Bailey.
With climate change in the Arctic accelerating faster than anywhere else on Earth, and with consequences for nature and local communities, the project will explore how new possibilities of how international performance touring might happen under increasing environmental constraints. The project also engages with growing geopolitical debates surrounding Arctic borderlands as melting ice opens up new shipping routes, and countries contest the ownership of newly available resources – highlighted by Donald Trump’s interest in acquiring Greenland for its strategic and resource value.
This work ‘Threshold’ explores how a slow journey might function as an artwork in its own right. Moving gradually through regions where national borders, indigenous territories, animal migration routes and geological formations intersect. Tom will meet local residents, artists and researchers and will host workshops and conversations with communities along the route. These encounters, alongside physical and sensory research in the landscape, will form the material for new performance work, which will be presented in 2027.
The physical design for this performance (responding to the landscapes encountered and the journey) will be simultaneously created by company designer Natasha Soonchild, working as an artist in residence in Kirkenes, northern Norway where Tom’s journey kicks off after festival workshops at Barents Spektakel.
Tom Bailey
Threshold represents the next stage in Tom’s ongoing artistic investigation into how performance is made, toured and shared in a climate-changed world. Tom’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2025 show Wild Thing! featured material from Boreal, a slow conversation between trees and people as well as Vigil, a “nature-tech safari” exploring species extinction.
Threshold – A Wild New Border Journey is produced by UK theatre company MECHANIMAL with partners in Norway and Denmark, including Norwegian dramaturg Gulli Sekse and Aarhus-based ILT (International Touring and Environmental Responsibility) Festival in Denmark.
The work is also supported by international climate action non-profit Julie’s Bicycle, and funded by a joint venture between Arts Council England, Arts Council Norway and the Danish Arts Foundation.
Read more: Ecologist Matty Hannon’s incredible solo adventure as he leaves his life in the city behind for the great outdoors in “The Road to Patagonia“
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