ㅤ
My practice revolves around a feminist approach to collecting and explores heritage, memories and contemporary issues such as material pollution, notably the enormous amounts of ocean plastic that wash ashore the coastline of Northern Denmark each year.
Sóley Ragnarsdóttir (Denmark/Iceland, 1991) lives and works in Stenbjerg Thy, Denmark. She graduated as a Meisterschülerin from the Städelschule in Frankfurt, Germany, in 2019, and in 2023, she received a work grant from the Danish Arts Foundation. Recently, she opened her solo exhibition at Gerðarsafn Kópavogur Art Museum in Reykjavík (IS, 2023), which will later move to Kunstpark Augustiana, Denmark; she presented the work More Love Hours at the international music festival Roskilde (DK, 2023). In 2022, she was in residence at Art Hub Copenhagen and showcased her work at Sorø Art Museum, Denmark. In 2021, at O-Overgaden in Copenhagen, she participated in a year-long postgraduate residency and held her first solo exhibition Organizing Principle. She has participated in various group exhibitions such as Nightmare Fuel at Y Gallery Kópavogur (IS, 2023); Therapy Room at The Moment, Berlin (DE, 2023); Reasons to be Cheerful at Gallery Martin Kudlek, Cologne (DE, 2023); Seed Bank at Baader Meinhof, Nebraska (USA, 2022). Her works are in private collections and the collection of the Danish Arts Foundation.
Berceto, gateway to the Tuscan-Emilian Apennine National Park, is a village in the province of Parma, and a Unesco MAB (Man and the Biosphere) reserve. One of the most important Apennine passes in Europe is just 9 km away, the Cisa pass, which leads to the Po valley plain, Tuscany, the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Cinque Terre coastal villages.
A historic crossroads of civilisations as a result of the Via Francigena (Franciscan Way) running through it, Berceto is a European meeting place founded by the Longobard king Liutprand and the French bishop Moderannus, the town’s patron saint. Both of them wanted to build an abbey, which today has become the majestic Cathedral with its Romanesque forms. Highlights of this small Medieval village include the ruins of the Castle on the slopes to the north of the town, which have now been made into an archaeological park.
Less than an hour’s walk away is the most important junction of European paths, near the source of the Baganza stream: the Via Francigena, the Alta Via dei Parchi, and the Sentiero Italia, sacred locations for travellers in the past.
Berceto is the only settlement in the world to be twinned with an Indian Reserve in South Dakota, the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, linked to Tatanka Iyotaka’s (Sitting Bull) Lakota population.
The local cuisine is unmissable, with recipes featuring Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) Porcino mushrooms and Parmigiano Reggiano Parmesan cheese. They include “spongata” (dessert cake with nuts, honey and dried fruit), “mostarda” (condiment made of candied fruit and a mustard-flavoured syrup), “anolini” pasta envelopes in broth, and tortelli di erbetta (pasta envelopes filled with green vegetables).