In Alignment: The phenomenon when a navigator observes two fixed reference points that are in line with the navigator.

“Overrett” is a performance project that explores the individual’s relationship to nature, our acquired sense of ownership of the landscape, and how public rights of access are challenged by ever-increasing mass tourism and human environmental footprint.

In nature I become the explorer and the performer, and through various exercises in the landscape, I research the relationship between the walker / explorer and his / her relationship to the landscape through different types of navigation systems. The walker / explorer (I) becomes a part of the landscape by spending time in it, and is then taught how to preserve it and function in it.

With little or found materials, I investigate the stories the landscape tells about the interaction between man and nature. My focus lies in revealing the way of perceiving one’s surroundings, coherent with the ways of movement and travel. Through this type of action, there is a search to deepen one’s presence, to slow down time and acquire a new form of attention. The focus is on not only the actions, but also how I think, feel and relate to someone / something, and how this something can change through repetition, action, observation and awareness.

The performance is part of a 14 day artistic research in North-Norway summer 2019, (Vadsø-Nord-Varanger). For 14 days I wandered through a landscape containing a long history of both Sami and early Norwegian settlements. And for 14 days I did 14 performances in a new location.

This performance is from Mortensnes, which consists of constructed trails that lead to monuments, which show continuous settlement from more than 10,000 years ago until recent times. There are traces of Stone Age settlements, Sami sacrificial sites, and graves.

Here I found a sea mark just off the coast from where I stood. I started to walk around, thinking about their culture and how they travelled and navigated the landscape by exploration and knowledge of their land.

I picked up a stick, carried with me for a while, until I found the spot that was in direct line to the sea mark. I planted the stick, securing it with stones. After a few minutes of silence, overlooking the sea, I left.