Gjert Rognli’s multimedia project What Nature Knows – Dan maid luondu diehtá reflects a visceral, personal connection with Arctic Northern Norway – a region defined by light, darkness, and stark seasonal contrasts. Rognli, who hails from the Indigenous Sámi people, draws on his childhood experiences among shamans steeped in the ancient animist folk religion. Through film, photography, sculpture, and performance, the artist explores his passionate bond with the organic world. With this immersive experience, Rognli invites us all on a mythological journey into deep forests and across misty waterways—where surreal phenomena guide the viewer through the unknown.

Gjert Rognli was selected by NOoSPHERE Arts’ international jury as our 2021 Residency Award winner after careful consideration of hundreds of applications originating from forty-seven countries. We are very pleased to finally welcome him onboard Mothership NYC after a long, pandemic-induced delay. For more details about Rognli’s residency project, his inspirations, and how he came to be an artist, we invite you to read this interview announcing last year’s NOoSPHERE Arts Residency Award.

Fritjof Capra: As an overarching theme for WE ARE NATURE 2022, we have selected from our very own favorite Scholar-in-Residence’s book Patterns of Connection (2021) four essential characteristics embodied in all forms of life. According to the “systems view,” which has recently been developed at the forefront of science, life organizes itself in networks; and these living networks are inherently regenerative, creative, and intelligent.

WE ARE NATURE: Patterns of Connection is the 3rd iteration of our annual rooftop series combining Arts, Environmental Activism, and Community Building @ and around Kingsland Wildflowers @ Broadway Stages. Set in a surreally beautiful nature sanctuary sprouting on top of an ExxonMobil industrial plant on the bank of Superfund site Newton Creek, the recurring WE ARE NATURE summer series offers a combination of multiple art forms – dance, music, performance, visual art, poetry, prose and film – addressing humanity’s place on Earth in aims of engaging a diverse audience in environmental efforts through art.

“We often forget that we are nature. Nature is not something separate from us. So, when we say that we have lost our connection to nature, we’ve lost our connection to ourselves.” —Andy Goldsworthy

WE ARE NATURE 2022 is sponsored, in part, by the National Endowment for the Arts and also the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, administered by Brooklyn Arts Council (BAC). NOoSPHERE Arts’ programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.