Annike Flo and Lexie Owen

Annike Flo (left) and Lexie Owen (right) Photo by: Drew Beckett

In residence: September - October 2026

Since 2022, Annike Flo and Lexie Owen have worked together as a duo, alongside their individual artistic practices. Lexie’s work centres on social practice and the development of structures that support collaboration and collective action, while Annike’s focuses on material explorations that unfold relationships between the human and non-human. Together they explore how social practice might shift when released from an anthropocentric focus, inviting in the agencies of other entities—from living organisms to so-called “inanimate” beings such as rocks. Their collaborative projects take shape through participatory performances, workshops, interactive installations, and publications.

During their residency at Artica Svalbard, Flo and Owen will expand their ongoing research into death cultures and the afterlives of bodies. Their long-term project troubles the binary between life and death, seeking ways of mourning and remembrance that acknowledge decomposition as an ongoing, circular process. This research is grounded in a dual frustration and curiosity: the restrictive frameworks of Norwegian funerary laws on one hand, and on the other, the potential for creative approaches that can grapple with personal grief, collective loss, and even mass extinction events.

Svalbard offers a unique context for this inquiry. Historically, the permafrost has preserved graves, preventing decomposition and offering rare insights into burial practices of the past. Today, climate change is thawing these graves, while Longyearbyen’s cemetery has been closed and is proposed for relocation due to landslides caused by shifting ground. Flo and Owen will engage with these realities through the collections of the Svalbard Museum, scientific research on thawing permafrost, and conversations with local residents about contemporary life in a place where death is both legally complicated and materially fraught.

By connecting the historical, social, and ecological conditions of Svalbard, their project aims to open spaces for dialogue and exchange around death, funeral practices, and mourning—making visible the tangible intersections between personal loss, community resilience, and planetary transformation.

Websites: Annike Flo / Lexie Owen

Instagram: Annike Flo / Lexie Owen