Bergen Centre for Electronic Arts

Choreographer and visual artist Helle Siljeholm and geologist Øyvind Paasche invite the audience for a guided walk around Nesttun pond. Situated at the foot of a mountain in a suburban landscape, the pond is continuously affected by flood. Participants will explore and contemplate the pond’s geological archive, over 6000 years of materials that rests below the water surface, through a sense based journey at its edge.

Guided walk
Time: 09:30
Place: Nesttun pond (Nesttunvannet). Please note: the gathering point for the walk is Østre, 9:30 am on 13 November.

Drawing upon Siljeholm’s long-term interdisciplinary project The Mountain Body, and Paasche’s research around Nesttun pond, they invite us to examine visible traces of shifting landscapes and to explore the interdependence between site, mountain, and body. The title of the walk refers to “The Living Mountain” – a seminal mountain memoir by the Scottish Modernist writer and poet Nan Shepherd, based on experiences of hill walking in the Cairngorms in Scotland. The Mountain Body is an art project by Helle Siljeholm who, in collaboration with artists, climbers and academics, investigates how the mountain visibly and invisibly affects, and is affected, by the surrounding community in the light of geological time. The mountain is the starting point for various explorations concerning our perspective on nature, as well as the relationship between nature and culture.

Please dress for the weather and be ready to sit and lay down on the ground in the area around the pond. Snacks and hot drinks will be served. As the route runs through wet ground and uneven terrain, the walk is unfortunately not wheelchair accessible or stroller friendly. The walk is free, but due to limited places we kindly ask you to register by sending an email to resources@bek.no.

HELLE SILJEHOLM

Helle Siljeholm is a choreographer and visual artist, based in Oslo. Her artistic practice involves video, installation, sculpture, choreography and performance. Siljeholm has a particular interest in nature/culture politics, histories and economies, and  in exploring how art can function as a space for alternate individual and collective imaginaries of the past, present and possible futures.

ØYVIND PAASCHE

Øyvind Paasche is the Head of the Climate Dynamics Department at NORCE. He has a long-term interest in past, present and future climate change and dynamics, especially at high latitudes. During later years, he has developed a keen interest in how scientific data is handled, used and understood by stakeholders and policymakers. Paasche is also the Head of Innovation at Climate Futures as well as a Senior Scientist affiliated with the Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research. He has published scientific papers on subjects such as floods, glaciers, climate variability, weathering and ice sheet dynamics.  

Images: 1) and 3) Photos from Nesttun pond by Øyvind Paasche. 2) Still from video footage, The Mountain Body, Norangsdalen (2021) courtesy of Helle Siljeholm.