Alumni News: Helene Sommer’s ‘Undergrunnsbevegelser’ Featured in Group Exhibition at Oslo Kunstforening
We are pleased to share that Artica Svalbard alumni Helene Sommer is currently exhibiting the two-channel video installation Undergrunnsbevegelser (Subterranean Movements) as part of the group exhibition Forestill deg at du faller (Imagine You Are Falling) at Oslo Kunstforening.
Developed following Sommer’s residency in Svalbard in 2023, the work was shaped by her encounter with drill cores on the archipelago—an experience that set the direction for a wider investigation into the Earth’s interior as an archive. Building on this starting point, Sommer carried out further filming at Norway’s national drill core archive in Trøndelag, as well as at the Geological Museum and the University of Oslo, interweaving these materials with references to science-fiction cinema.
Undergrunnsbevegelser takes the drill core as a vertical cross-section through stone, time, and memory. Through a montage-like video essay, the work explores how scientific practices open up the Earth’s interior, and how this process reframes our relationship to natural resources, knowledge production, and the ground beneath our feet.
The exhibition Forestill deg at du faller brings together works by Per Christian Brown, Book & Hedén, Hege Nyborg, Helene Sommer, and Thorbjørn Sørensen. Rooted in a long-standing dialogue between the artists, the exhibition considers objects as carriers of history—positioned between nature and culture, and between human and non-human worlds. The title references an essay by Hito Steyerl, reflecting on shifting perspectives, instability, and the sensation of losing solid ground.
Exhibition details
Exhibition title: Forestill deg at du faller
Location: Oslo Kunstforening, Oslo, Norway
Dates: 29.01.26 — 29.03.26
Artists: Per Christian Brown, Book & Hedén, Hege Nyborg, Helene Sommer, Thorbjørn Sørensen
We’re delighted to see how Sommer’s time in Svalbard continues to resonate within her practice, and how encounters with Arctic material histories have evolved into this layered and thoughtful work.
For more information about the exhibition, visit this link.