Jærtegn in Sør-Varanger 15–23 August 2025 - A nine-day haunting of Sør-Varanger and the library in Kirkenes with a Soil Discussion, a walk, and a workshop for children and young people
Jærtegn is inspired by NIBIO Svanhovd's research on nematodes, and how these microscopic creatures constantly elude both classification and sampling. We often look to science for answers and inspiration, but when it comes to soils and the nematodes that live in them, it is surprising how little we know. Where natural science tends to look at nematodes as an indicator of soil health, and is interested in the enormous number of species that have not yet been registered, Jærtegn follows these roundworms as unruly, unrecognisable guides into various human-soil relationships. The black hole in research on soil becomes a point of contact between reality, fiction and what lies beyond.
A roaming installation of entangled textile nematodes, magnified to human scale, haunts nine locations in Sør-Varanger: legendary places, agricultural ditches, depots, etc. At the same time, the library's technology is haunted through a video appearing on certain information screens and through a fanzine that is produced on one of the printers. The video work and the fanzine reflect the textile nematodes wherever they happen to be at any given time – every night a new place, and every day a new video and a new page of the fanzine. In Jærtegn, the idea of haunting is an approach for creating contact with soil as a medium, a medium that is disturbed and at the same time makes new connections between time, space, and scale readable.
Programme Friday 15 August, 12:15–13:00 Soil Discussions at the library in Kirkenes Sunday 17 August, 19:00–21:00 Walking with Jærtegn. Meeting place: The parking lot at Ørnevann Saturday 23 August, 12:00–15:00 Workshop for children and young people with the artist at Svanhovd's Open Day
Soil Discussions sheds light on soils from several different fields of knowledge: philosophy and art history, science and technology studies, environmental humanities, biology and art. Contributors include researchers Nora S. Vaage, Susanne Bauer, Ursula Münster and Cornelya Klutsch, as well as artist Annike Flo and curator Hilde Methi, who are responsible for the artwork and programme. On Sunday 17th, in addition to the aforementioned researchers, local historian Rolf Randa and Line Moe and Irene Karlsen from the Miraculix Mushroom and Useful Plant Association will join us for the Walking with Jærtegn event. Guided by Jærtegn's fanzine, we will visit the textile installation and invoke the nematodes at Ørnevann.
The installation of Jærtegn at the library is on display every day (except Sundays) between 15 and 23 August.
Jærtegn is an artwork by Annike Flo with contributions from Anna Leijonhielm and Hedda Virik (video consultation and editing), Espen Sommer Eide (sound for video), Karoline Bang and Annette Cecilie Danielsen (textiles and sewing).
annikeflo.com / Instagram
Jærtegn is part of TRE TRE TRE by Hilde Methi and the research project ‘Anthropogenic Soils’ (2022-2028) by the University of Oslo and Norwegian BioArt Arena (NOBA), in collaboration with Sør-Varanger Library and NIBIO Svanhovd. The work will be exhibited at NOBA in Ås in 2027.
TRE TRE TRE is formed in a loose network of voices from various art and knowledge environments that intersect and cross paths in the north-east. It is carried out through workshops, fieldwork, and the curatorial exploration of new forms of artistic production within a local context, with the forests of Sør-Varanger being one focal point. The presentation of Jærtegn and the other activities here in 2025 are being organised in collaboration with researcher Neal Cahoon, University of Oulu.