Guests at Autumn Residency 2026
These are the guests who come residency to Velferden this fall!
Ase Vikse
01.09 - 29.09
Åse Vikse (b. 1981, Sveio) is an interdisciplinary graphic artist based in Øystese, Hardanger. She holds an MA in Fine Art (Printmaking) from Middlesex University, London. In her work, she explores the concept of place, is interested in architecture and history, and has a strong focus on circular material use.
As a graphic artist, Vikse works with both traditional techniques such as woodcuts and more experimental monoprints.
During the stay at Velferden She wants to challenge her practice by exploring painting as a form of visual communication. She is fascinated by the industrial landscape of Sokndal and Titania's history - even though this is new terrain - and wants to explore the constructed in the face of the organic.
Vikse is preoccupied with the lost: random objects and the silent histories. The goal of a stay at Velferden is to find peace to work and experiment in a new landscape, and thus add new impulses and dimensions to the artistry.
Mychelle Moritz
30.09 - 01.12
Mychelle Moritz (b. 1972, USA) is a multidisciplinary artist with a focus on sculptural ceramics. Her artistic practice focuses on environmental and social justice, and she is driven by a fascination with the sense of belonging. Having moved frequently during her childhood and experienced several different family constellations throughout her life, Mychelle combines various processes to create exploratory artworks with themes related to displacement and adaptation across species.
Mychelle holds a Master's degree in Art Therapy from Marylhurst University. Her work has been exhibited both locally and nationally in the United States. She currently lives in Portland, Oregon, where, in addition to her artistic practice, she also works as a therapist.
During the stay at Velferden Mychelle wants to create a series of interactive textile works, designed to invite audience participation, inspired by the different stages of healing and adaptation processes in flora, fauna and fungi in the landscape.
Natalie Blom
04.10 - 31.10
Natalie Blom (b. 1994, Gothenburg, Sweden) is an architect, artist and curator. Her work addresses current socio-ecological challenges by examining concepts related to coexistence and posthumanism. Through spatial installations and text, Natalie explores different forms of care and proximity to local ecologies, and how this can also contribute to strengthening social relationships between people.
Natalie has a master's degree in architecture from Chalmers University of Technology (2020). She has also participated in the two post-master's programs Of Public Interest (OPI) Lab (2023–2024) and Feral Writing (2025–2026) at the Royal Academy of Arts in Stockholm.
She is the co-founder of Garden Loops, a collective that explores more-than-human landscapes and food systems through artistic and participatory methods. Garden Loops uses workshops as a platform for open, shared learning, with the goal of establishing collaborative networks and fostering interdisciplinary dialogue.
On Velferden Natalie will be working on an ongoing collaborative publication project that combines essays, poetry, and images/photography. The content explores collective and artistic ways of approaching nature in one's immediate surroundings, and aims to increase interest and commitment to caring for local ecosystems. She looks forward to having the time and space to focus, experiment, and progress with her writing during this residency.
Christine Roj
12.10 - 30.11
Christine Roj (b. 1999 in Copenhagen) is a climate journalist and critic. She holds a degree in political science with a specialization in political theory from the University of Copenhagen and cultural studies from Goldsmiths, University of London and St Andrews University.
She works at the intersection of climate and culture and is particularly concerned with all the politics that take place there. In aesthetics, material encounters, landscapes, everyday practices. And how they change in the times of crisis we are living through. She particularly works with the experiences of loss that it all entails – and how the grief over what has been lost is expressed and becomes political.
During his stay at Velferden She will work on a book project that zooms in on the change in the Nordic, and especially the Danish, landscape, both as initiatives for "rewilding" and "restoration" take off, and as losses, as productions expand, coasts are gradually eaten up, and instability changes otherwise recognizable rhythms.
Igor Trepeschenok
03.11 - 07.12
Igor Trepeshchenok (b. 1984, Riga, Latvia) is a photographer based in Hamburg, Germany. In his long-term projects, he examines places shaped by industry, ecology, and planning – landscapes that are managed, built, or mined, rather than existing.
Igor studied press and editorial photography at Falmouth University (BA Hons), and has since participated in a mentoring program with Sebastian Liste (NOOR) and a nine-month project-based programme with Mark Power (Magnum) at Werkstatt Berlin.
On Velferden Igor returns to the place where he first worked in 2025, and continues with If Theia – a project that follows the mining in Sokndal and its connection to ideas about future mineral extraction on the moon. His work increasingly moves towards speculative documentarism, where text is treated as material on a par with images, and objects, video and sound are collected in parallel – so that fact and fiction can openly coexist.
James Balo
01.11 - 30.11
James Kaun Balo (b. 2000, Carol City, Florida) is a queer, black, Haitian-Jamaican interdisciplinary artist and educator based in Miami. Drawing on Caribbean folk traditions, he combines tactile collage, experimental film, and spoken word in rituals that address generational trauma.
Balo was named a US Presidential Scholar in 2018, is a Teaching Artist at the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) and a Commissioned Artist at the Miami Light Project in 2027. His artistic work also includes residencies at MASS MoCA and the Bakehouse Art Complex.
On Velferden Balo will further develop his immersive work If I Die Before My Mother—Would I Make a Pretty Girl? . By situating his black, political body and his ancestral stories within the striking landscape of Sokndal, he explores the parallels between physical and emotional excavation. By integrating the departure from the region’s mining industry into the work, Balo examines how industrial extraction mirrors the complex, generational repositories of memories, diaspora, and grief associated with family.
