In May 2022 The Solastalgia group was on an artist residency in Vadsø, Norway. Through travels in the area on the Varanger peninsula and to the south, in the Kirkenes and Pasvik Valley areas we conducted research on the relationship to nature, use of natural resources today and historically.
The results where be exhibited at the Varrangerfestivalen 2022 in August, where we were invited as festival artists 2023.

The Solastalgia group first started their collaboration in 2019 at the Art Academy (KMD) in Bergen, Norway as an initiative taken by former professor at KMD Christine Hansen. Here they investigated the ongoing case of the potential open pit mining of the Engebøfjellet mountain in the Førde fjord. The results where exhibited in Bergen March 2019, and in Stavanger in October 2020. See my contribution, the video collage “The Mouse and the Mountaintop” here and the booklet “there is so much power in feeling insignificant” here.

The group consists today of artists Christine Hansen, Skade Henriksen, Ann Edvartsen, Sidsel Bonde, Åsne Eldøy and myself. Emilie Wright was a part of the initial group from 2019-2020. Our website can be visited at www.solastalgia.no

Solastalgia:
a combination of the Latin word sōlācium (comfort) and the Greek root -algia (pain). It describes the psychological and existential distress many feel in relation to environmental change such as mining activity, drought and water pollution. Concept coined by the philosopher Glenn Albrecht in 2003.