SALT ART: Selected from Dark Ecology
Featuring both installations and performances throughout the spring,
SALT ART: Selected from Dark Ecology launches on the 8th of February with installations by
HC Gilje and
BJ Nilsen, as well as a video by
Justin Bennett. The second event will take place on the 21st of March, and will include exhibitions by
Tatjana Gorbachewskaja & Katya Larina and
Cecilia Jonsson, as well as performances by
Signe Lidén and
Jana Winderen. A programme of artist talks and lectures will also take place during these dates.
For detailed information on opening hours and ticket sales please check the local organiser's webpage.
SALT is located within a ten minute walk from Oslo Central Station, at Langkaia 1.
Thursday 8 February to Sunday 13 May
unearthed 2014-2018 by BJ Nilsen, sound-installation
Contained and recontextualised within the structure of The Arctic Pyramid,
unearthed 2014-2018 presents the nuances and uncanny contrasts within the soundscapes of the borderland between Norway and Russia, where the sparse beauty of the Arctic landscape meets industrial decay and heavy pollution.
unearthed 2014-2018 stems from
unearthed, a collaborative project between BJ Nilsen and filmmaker Karl Lemieux.
Thursday 8 February to Friday 16 March
Barents (Mare Incognitum) depicts a slowly rotating view of the Barents Sea, where borders and thresholds become invisible and the potential disaster inherent in the ocean becomes clear. Installed in the outdoor structure, Lillehjella, the work’s proximity to the Bjørvika shoreline may serve as an additional reminder of the pertinence of the conceptual issues that
Barents (Mare Incognitum) raises.
Thursday 8 February and Wednesday 21 March
Based on Bennett’s earlier sound-walk,
Vilgiskoddeoayvinyarvi: Wolf Lake on the Mountains centres on the figure of Viktor, a fictional geologist who used to work at the Kola Superdeep Borehole (KSD) near the Norwegian border. Now realised as a work for video, Viktor’s voice will again guide us around the KSD, linking the features of the abandoned structure to aspects of the past, to himself, and to the connections between the geology of the area and Sami shamanism and divination.
Wednesday 21 March
During
Pasvikdalen, the listener is encouraged to discover the complexities and strangeness of the unseen world, and to think about their relationship to the non-human voices and sounds that they encounter.
krysning/пересечение/conflux is a light journey through complex territories – an expedition with bow and arrow across pastures, mountains, manmade landscapes, military zones, mining areas and settlements in the border zone between Norway and Russia.
Wednesday 21 March to Sunday 13 May
Framed within the outdoor structure of Lillehjella,
Nikel Materiality showcases excerpts from a comprehensive catalogue of research materials that detail how the materiality of the city of Nikel has started to interact directly with the natural conditions of the unique Arctic climate and ecosystem.
Continuing on from the first phase of
Prospecting: A Geological Survey of Greys, when the rock cores of metamorphic gneiss were extracted from Prestefjellet and displayed as sculpture beside the borehole, the artist has since conducted various analyses and microscopy on the extracted stone in search of the bedrock’s shades of grey tones. The installation occupying Árdna, with its photography of the rock’s microstructures, turns geology into a visual composition and challenges the human perception of colours.

Vilgiskoddeoayvinyarvi: Wolf Lake on the Mountains (2017), Justin Bennett. Photo by Pieter Kers.