19. sept 2025-1.februar 2026

Teksten er hentet fra Nordnorsk kunstnersenterts side og er skrevet av Adriana Alves: https://www.nnks.no/en/programme/storeggaraset-en

More than eight thousand years ago, a vast underwater landslide off the coast of Møre cascaded into the Norwegian Sea, triggering a tsunami that swept across the northern shoreline. The waves travelled south through the North Sea and submerged large parts of Doggerland – the expansive landmass that once connected Britain to mainland Europe. Land became sea, and traces of human presence disappeared beneath the water.

This year’s exhibition programme opens with a collaborative project by Gunvor Tangrand and Marianne Moe, whose point of departure is this very geological event, the “Storegga Slide.” The exhibition of the same title, however, looks beyond the dramatic incident in prehistoric time, examining how raw force and destruction can give rise to new and unexpected imaginaries. It opens a space for the fabulous and the possible, where the forces of nature emerge as reflections of human vulnerability and creative potential.

Like an echo rising from the depths, the image of Atlantis also appears – the legendary island nation described by Plato as a place of abundance and beauty, constructed in concentric rings of land and water radiating from a centre. There, Poseidon reigned, and humans lived surrounded by wealth and knowledge until hubris prevailed. In a single day and night, the island was swallowed by the sea. The myth reminds us that creation and ruin are closely intertwined, that nothing remains static, and that the boundaries between nature and culture, reality and imagination, are constantly shifting.

Doggerland and Atlantis complement one another as two sides of the same story – one real, the other mythical. Where the disappearance of Doggerland attests to the raw power of nature, Atlantis speaks to humanity’s longing for the boundless. Together they form a backdrop for our own time, an era in which the overexploitation of natural resources, the burning of fossil fuels, and melting ice put the planet into unstable motion. Where the sea once rose and consumed land, it rises again now – slowly but inexorably – reminding us that the Earth’s balance is never guaranteed.