The ceramic piece — inspired and named after the folktale „Naustahvilft“ — is an object made out of stoneware, which reminds of a stoup and the form of running liquid. It got a window,
which shows an animation on a smartphone of a round figure with legs, taking a foot-bath in a swampy looking landscape. The washbasin part of the object is filled with water.

The story takes place at the mountain crate, which you can constantly see living at Engi.
It’s interesting how the troll apparently tried to hurry to get home before sunrise
and at the end was so fast, that she decided to take a rest.
This image of the resting figure in the mountain resonated very well with Veronika’s project’s subject of wetlands — connecting land and water, wet and dry.

Swamps are being reflected as these (un)productive and “worthless” areas,
which can’t be monetised by humans, without being drained.
Although the swamp is crucial to our environment for creating fresh water and oxygen,
flood control and species richness, it is still considered „worthless“ in a capitalistic point of view.

The piece reflects the swamp as a metaphor for our own (un)productivity.
How can periods of being unproductive and rather rest than being active change our practice?
Is it a form of rebellion against capitalism not to be productive all the time?
Can it even be possible in nature to be inactive — since everything is changing and shifting constantly?

Veronika Abigail Beringer

Fair Little Friends - Becoming Moss, 2023
plant-dyed and woven cotton-fiber-stripes, wool
Dunja Krcek

Installation 'Fair Little Friends'

The site-specific installation Fair Little Friends includes three individual works which are connected to each other through pathways in an overgrown garden – two textile sculptures and one piece made entirely out of plant material. 

It refers to the vegetal environment in Isafjördur, especially cushion flowers blooming all over the mountains throughout the summer. These small plants withstand the harsh weather conditions,
showing their brightest colors, no matter what.
Even though surrounded by various bodies of water (sea, rivers, waterfalls), plants often have a hard time to grow on mountains which suffer from erosion. As erosion can disrupt natural water flow patterns,
which leads to increased water runoff and reduced water retention in the soil, resulting in inadequate water availability for the plants. However, cushion flowers adapted to these conditions.
Through their compact way of growing they are creating their own micro climate to minimize water loss and other challenging factors.      

Interested in the relational poetical space which opens up whilst interacting with a landscape,
and how following intuitional notions and images creates tacit knowledge that helps us to ground and trust ourselves in what we see, hear, taste and smell, I understand water as a gateway for interaction and communication with the plants, as it connects and runs through human as vegetal bodies.
Water is the carrier medium for potential narratives floating around when getting to know each other.
It allows me to build a friendship with these plants along the way.

In creating a fluid space for correspondence with the cushion flowers through breathing, drinking herb teas and repeatedly extracting plant pigments into liquids to then again let fibers absorb the liquid substance, the process of making the sculpture becomes an interplay of moistured and dry states,
creating loopholes for prefixed thinking patterns and anthropocentric definitions regarding the term nature.

The work is made out of interwoven plant-dyed textiles, strings from dried out dandelion stems, dried flowers and wool. Displayed outdoors – in the garden of Engi – Fair Little Friends
becomes a platform for reciprocal dialogue. Anlongside the installation a tea bar made with local foraged plants invites visitors to connect with the flowers even further, entering the space of fluidity.

Dunja Krcek

Rivulets House, 2023
cotton grass, glazed stoneware, plants, shells, candles, glasses with liquids, flower printed fabric
Installation by Dunja Krcek and Veronika Beringer

© All Pictures taken by Veronika Abigail Beringer

With kind support by the Federal Ministry for Arts and Culture, the Cultural Department of Lower Austria and the European Union (Culture Moves Europe).

This work was produced with the financial assistance of the European Union. The views expressed herein can in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of the European Union.