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Land Bodies, Decomposing Mass
21 February to 28 June 2026
Maria Simmons, Fabian Lanzmaier, Ingrid Bjørnaali, Simon Daniel Tegnander Wenzel
Land Bodies, Decomposing Mass is a cross-Atlantic, audio-visual collaboration that explores the embodiment and translation of peatland knowledge through blending physical engagement with digital interpretations. As part of their collaboration, the artists have visited peat bogs in Finland, Estonia, Norway and Canada. Through recordings of those landscapes they find and interpret naturally created monuments like dead, standing trees held in place by the mires, and portals that connect past and present, the bubbles on the surface, and the subterranean world.
Sculptures, sound, scent and photogrammetry-based methods of digital gathering, depict sites that form new virtual spaces, seeking a re-mystification and a non-quantifiable approach to peatlands. The exhibition juxtaposes a generative sound installation, moving image and sculpture into various combinations, offering alternative perspectives of the translated sites. Throughout the installation, scent unlocks other memories and relations, nudging the installation further into a site of transformation and translocation.
Installation + construction by Lawrence Salza, Soroush Dabiri, Maria, Simon, Fabian, and myself.
With special support from the Office of Contemporary Art Norway (@oca_norway ) and the Austrian Embassy Canada.
@rattsarina@piggsopp@fabianlanzmaier@ingridkbjorn
Artica Svalbard is pleased to share a new short film featuring Norwegian artist and musician Simon Daniel Tegnander Wenzel, who was in residence at Artica Svalbard during the summer of 2025.
The film offers an insight into Simon’s work with scent as an artistic medium. Working with olfaction, he creates scent-based compositions that connect memory, place, and personal experience. From childhood associations triggered by everyday smells, to the reconstruction of a cave through its atmosphere and minerals, his practice moves between intimate recollection and careful sensory research.
Through fieldwork, studio experiments using a perfumer’s organ, and workshops with audiences, Simon uses scent to open spaces for reflection, dialogue, and shared memory — inviting people to revisit places, moments, and parts of themselves that might otherwise remain hidden.
The full length film is now available to watch at articasvalbard.no
The film was made by Tom Warner - @tomwarner3d .
So be it, a new round has started, 2026 is about to unfold...
The videos are from rehearsing Arvo Pärt - Für Alina for a concert last autumn. This is a piece I always bring back in the dark months, it opens a space of introspection I need access to, to stay sane during the dark season here in the north.
The composition is deceptively simple, structured around two very simple voices that together form and hold an entire universe of harmonies, dissonance and overtones, created and allowed by sustaining the pedal all the way except one crucial point. It resonates trough the instruments, the body of the performer and rings like crazy in the space where it's played, but softly. It is so hard to play it well!
The composer instructs the player to calmly listen inwards, inside oneself. When I play it, I know I have the right focus when it's like I can see in front of me, paths appearing, routes, potentials branching off from points, sparkles of tones and resonance, and I can choose to follow them or not. If I don't listen closely, the choices I'm offered fade and I'm left at a dead end. The piece reveals everything, there are no big chords and melodies to hide behind, you cannot pretend it's all ok or put on a dramatic expression just to entertain. You have to be present in the moment, surrender to the piece. The music forces you to face yourself, so you can be guided to where it really wants to take you...
After the concert, someone in the audience came to me and said they were confused about how a piece of music could be allowed to be this simple. For me, Für Alina is tapping into what the power and alchemy of music is really about.
In 2026, I hope we can all take greater care of ourselves and the ones around us, we can't take things for granted in this world. I hope we can listen more for the subtle but deep hum that lives inside us, the one that connects us to eachother.
Happy new year!
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!! UPDATE: SOLD OUT!!
Hello my friends!
This autumn has been exceptionally busy. As a result, my Christmas market is both late and very small this year. What I have available are two solid perfumes: the popular Ambre Ancienne, and a brand new scent called Winter Wood.
Winter Wood is a festive fragrance that evokes a Christmas trees, incense, winter spices, sweets and mulled wine.
Ambre Ancienne is a deep and luxurious fragrance featuring some of the oldest perfume materials in the world, resins such as myrrh and frankincense, as well as ambergris and rose.
Both come in a handy 15 ml tub.
200 NOK.
Only a limited supply available, first come, first served!
Message me here and we can arrange pickup or postage.
xx
@loganroycebeitmen interviews Simon Daniel Tegnander Wenzel @piggsopp , an artist who works with scent, performance, video, sound, & installation - his work is currently in the group show Winter Nights @billedkunstnerne_i_oslo through November 2 - listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or via link in bio #interlocutorinterviews
BO sin aktuelle utstilling er Winter Nights, kuratert av Eleni Riga (GR) med kunstnere Miriam Hansen, Simon Daniel Tegnander Wenzel, Úna Hamilton Helle, Marthe Andersen og Viktor Pedersen.
Gruppeutstillingen er den første i det som for BO blir en årlig satsning for å sette Oslo-kunstnere i kontakt med internasjonale kuratorer i etableringsfasen.
Riga har tatt utgangspunkt i den gammelnordiske markeringen av overgangen til vintertid, «Vetrnætr», og gjennom utstillingen utforskes ritualets dype kobling med syklisk tid og natur. De deltakende kunstnerne presenterer verk som omhandler sesongskifte, makt, historie, magi, søvn, død og gjenfødelse.
Vi holder åpent onsdag til søndag, 12:00 - 16:00. Utstillingen står til 2. november.
Velkommen til oss i 1. etasje i Anatomigården, Rådhusgata 19.
Foto: Thomas Tveter
PRAKSIS som holder til med oss i Anatomigården (@praksisoslo ) viser filmverket «The Unloved» av Felicia Honkasalo og Sam Williams på loftet. Denne står til 26. oktober, og er åpen onsdag til fredag, 12:00 - 16:00.
A little sneak peek behind the scenes in my studio:
I’m working on 4 new olfactive works for an exhibition opening towards the end of september at @billedkunstnerne_i_oslo . In this post I wanted to show how the raw materials used for scent making - perfumes - olfactive art, come in many forms. There are liquids with varying viscosities and colors, powders, pastes and crystals. They can be tricky to get out of the containers sometimes.
Within this project, I have worked with some of my favorite materials, smells that can be described as agrestic, bucolic, belonging to the countryside, farm life etc. 🐏🌻🐇🍂🌾🌾🐴🍃
The reddish brown paste here is an extract made from water left after rinsing wool from lanolin and other things. It smells sooo good, like sheep, but also like a fruity boozy drink, warm and comforting. The greenish Shreck snot is actually a gorgeous Elderflower Absolute recreation, it almost made me cry when I first smelled it. In itself it has notes of late summer hay, fruits, meadows…stunning! The dark, almost black is actually deep green, an extract of alpine hay. The transparent crystals are Fenchol, a chemical providing cold and earthy touches, like of frozen soil. I had to pick out individual crystals with a tweezer to get the small amounts I needed. I also use one of my own materials, a gorgeous aged spruce resin oil that I distilled from resin collected in the graveyard in Gamlebyen. More on the works to come soon…
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So here is a little moody rant. (Because mental health is important, and it's totally fine to feel like crap sometimes)
It can become really lonely working as an artist. I don't mean all the hours spent alone in the studio, I mean social life and "free time," especially during the summers. I feel like everyone in the field, myself included, is a workaholic, and sometimes it seems like I only meet my friends when working together on a project.
When it's already difficult to make space for breaks and leisure for myself, it can be so frustrating finding your friends are busy working all the time and you end up feeling lonely..
It's hard to be as spontaneous and carefree as I wish to be this time of year. Spring and summer is when I feel the most alive and energetic, the most myself, and I find I'm spending this time more and more alone. I dont know if I believe what I'm writing here to be true, but it is a reflection around something I feel more often than I'd like.
I think many would agree that woring in culture has us falling into, or even reproducing patterns and learnt norms and expectations that can be toxic.
Just venting a bit here. Nothing too serious. But I do believe it is important to pause and reflect on my own feelings vs. work ethics sometimes.
Enjoy the sun and the flowers and the beautiful waters, hope to see you somewhere. Xx someone who misses the endless, carfree summers of youth.
🌾🏵🌊🦋🐬🌞🐳🍀🪷🐝
