Caroline Mårtensson

We are a nature-loving people. During the pandemic, it has become more obvious than ever – we have visited forests, mountains and lakes in search for clean air, beautiful views and silence. However, does nature love people? Have the past two years been as beneficial for animallife and plants? We romanticize what nature has to offer in terms of recreation, exercise and experiences. However, our knowledge of nature and our negative impact on it is low.

Caroline Mårtensson’s work revolves around encouraging knowledge – to increase our ecological literacy. She wantsto visualize our relation to nature and the traces we leave behind. Through studies of places in our immediate surroundings and through presenting unexpected perspectives of their conditions, she helps us to see what is happening. With her work, she lures us to pass the psychological barriers that normally distract us.

In her earlier work, Mårtensson has been exploring the Kingdom of Glass in Smålad, lake Möckeln and the wetlands of Kristianstad. In this exhibition, she is showing a new video installation, which is interweaving observations of species from her close environment in Halland with two complex places that reappear in several of her works: the military training fields Ravlunda and Revingehed in Skåne. Since war came to in Europe again, focus (with every right) has been on the tremendous human suffering. The discussion is also concerning the energy crisis and increasing prices on food. How nature is affected by the invasion – land mines, bombs, ammunition, tanks, pollution and so on – is cast in shadow.  

Mårtensson started her investigations of Ravlunda and Revingehed 10 years ago. The areas areconstantly exposed to war practise, not just by the Swedish military but alsoforeign forces rent it. However, the image has two sides. The areas have been protected from “normal human activities” since the 1940s. There are no housing developments, no modern farming, no entertainment establishments. The military activities have left enormous wounds, but on the contrary it is also aprerequisite for plants and animals. The biodiversity is high, partly due tothe fact that the area hasn’t been exploited in the way that we tend to do with the nature we love the most.

Caroline Mårtensson (b. 1977) works in Halland and has an MFA from the Malmö Art Academy. Together with designer Patrik Bengtsson she runs Test Site Steninge, a platform for experimenting and dialogue around sustainable building and renewal.

Curator: Elna Svenle

Thanks to: Region Halland, Kvadrat, Swedish Arts Council, Region Jönköping County, Värnamo Municipality, Vandalorum Partners
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^{Photo: Patrik Lindell}