The exhibition “Iter Subterraneum” draws inspiration from Ludvig Holberg’s novel Niels Klims reise til den underjordiske verden (Niels Klim’s Underground Travels, 1741), often regarded as the Nordic region’s first science fiction novel. Through the story of a man who falls through a hole in Mount Fløyen in Bergen and discovers a society governed by thinking trees, the Enlightenment’s belief in science blends with fantasy and satire. In Holberg’s universe, the trees possess both morals and reason, and the novel can today be viewed as an early exploration of ecological and utopian ideas—a world where growth, branching, and coexistence challenge humanity’s notion of its own superiority.
The exhibition title “Iter Subterraneum” refers to Holberg’s original Latin title and hints at a descent into the earth’s layers and the subconscious mind. In Galleries 1–4, works by ten artists from diverse geographical and linguistic backgrounds are displayed, each exploring, in different ways, connections between science and myth, technology and the body, as well as human and more-than-human life. In Holberg’s universe, we encounter both a belief in the progress of knowledge and a fundamental scepticism about humanity’s place in the natural order. The exhibition revisits this legacy with a focus on the world of plants, where thinking trees become symbols of alternative forms of sensing and reasoning. The subterranean and utopian societies emerge, creating space for thinking with nature rather than about it.
The artists’ works explore themes such as plant intelligence, speculative fiction, utopian thinking, and ecological reflection. Several of them approach these topics by shifting the gaze from the human to other life forms and narratives that have previously been overlooked, forgotten, or hidden. Similar to Holberg, the exhibition also acknowledges the non-conformist bodies, desires, and existences that challenge categorisation. The mythical and the vegetal blend as different forms of life that break norms, growing sideways rather than upwards.
