2026
Performance
Holmeegenes, Stavanger Museum of Art
curated by Vibece Salthe
duration: 45 min
material: 40 used spades, wheelbarrows, historic summerflowers
Thank you to everyone who lent me their spade for the day: many garden enthusiasts, and Stavanger kommune Park & Natur.
The beautiful plants were provided by Selvåg Gartneri, Stavanger.
Holmeegenes was once the largest nursery in Vestlandet.
What now remains are foundations of greenhouses, overgrown grass, and rows of Alchemilla that keep coming back. Family-owned, the nursery employed around twenty people and won prizes for the quality of its chrysanthemums and flower decorations. The trophies, a few tools and documents are in the museum next door.
On the 6th of June 2026, I bring in total 40 spades back to the area of the former greenhouses. I place the spades in the ground, one by one. Some close together, some apart, some between the foundations, some outside. Then I leave. The workplace stands abandoned, or awaiting activity.
With the wheelbarrow now loaded with plants, I return. I take one spade and begin to plant, and I invite others to join. Hopefully, the plants grow and develop over the summer, and remain as a trace of my performance, and of Holmeegenes as nursery and workplace.
