Exhibition: "Iter Subterraneum"

"Iter Subterraneum" is a group exhibition inspired by Ludvig Holberg's novel Niels Klim's Underground
Travels (1741) is often cited as the Nordic region's first science fiction novel. The story follows a man who
falls through a hole in the earth beneath Bergen and discovers a society governed by sentient trees.
Here, the Enlightenment's faith in reason and progress is united with fantasy, satire, and speculative
thought.

In Holberg's subterranean universe, the trees possess both morality and rationality. Today, the novel
can be read as an early reflection on ecology and utopian thinking, where branching and coexistence
challenge humanity's notion of superiority. The exhibition takes its name from Holberg's original Latin
title for the book, and refers to a journey unfolding underground, in spaces often associated with the
hidden, the overlooked, and the unconscious.

"Iter Subterraneum" re-reads Holberg's underground journey with a gaze directed towards the plant
world. Here, the sentient trees become an image of other forms of sensing and reasoning—ways of perceiving and organising the world that do not regard the human as a central unit against which everything is measured. The subterranean and utopian landscapes open up as speculative spaces for thinking with nature rather than about it.

In Galleries 1–4, works by ten artists from diverse geographical and linguistic contexts are presented.
In various ways, they investigate connections between nature and technology, mythology and science,
and the body and material. Several of the artists turn their gaze away from the human and towards life
forms, narratives, and experiences that typically reside on the margins. As in Holberg's book, several
of the works contain both a belief in the possibilities of knowledge and a fundamental doubt about humanity's place in the natural order.

Through sculpture, film, painting, collage, and performance, the artists open up speculative spaces where plants, fungi, insects, and human bodies enter into shifting relationships. The exhibition
approaches utopian thinking not as an endpoint but as a movement—a way of orienting oneself in encounters with nature, knowledge, and imagination.

Gallery 5 expands "Iter Subterraneum" with a historical and literary perspective. A selection of historical editions of Niels Klim's Underground Travels are presented in collaboration with the Special Collections at the University of Bergen Library, ranging from the original Latin edition Nicolai Klimii Iter Subterraneum (1741) to later translations in Danish, Norwegian, and other languages. Together with illustrations, graphic interpretations, and later artistic adaptations, the selection offers insight into how Holberg's underground journey has been read and carried forward over time.