KULLBINGEN:
Flatland

24. September – 25. October 2026

Free entrance
Closed

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In Flatland, garments altered by soil appear alongside microbial wool processes, wool aerogel, spatial weaving and four-dimensional t-shirt worms. Hilde Stiegler Rubecksen uses these material experiments to explore how objects persist, transform and disappear over time.

The exhibition opens on 24 September at 17:00 at Kullbingen, Nyhavna.

Flatland is the first presentation in a new research collaboration between Trøndelag senter for samtidskunst (TSSK) and NTNU’s Faculty of Architecture and Design, bringing artistic research PhD projects into a public contemporary art context.

Garments and textile samples have been buried in soil. Raw wool undergoes suint fermentation in rainwater, sea water and deionised water. Wool fibres are incorporated into aerogels synthesised through freeze-drying and sublimation – as a novel way of using wool. White t-shirts become a material for exploring metaphysical theories of persistence through time.

T-shirt after burial in soil.

Photo: Hilde S. Rubecksen.

The exhibition takes its title from Edwin A. Abbott’s 1884 novel Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. Set in a two-dimensional world, the novel follows A. Square as he encounters a three-dimensional sphere that disrupts the limits of what he is able to perceive. For Rubecksen, this shift in dimensional perspectives becomes a way of thinking about objects across time: whether something remains the same as it changes, decomposes or takes on another form.

Questions of regenerative durability run through the exhibition. Rather than defining durability solely through longevity and resistance, Rubecksen considers biodegradability and material transformation as part of how the lifespan of garments and textiles might be understood as regenerative durability. Her research approaches the perishable qualities of natural fibres as potential strengths rather than deficiencies. Some of the works also draw on theories of perdurance and exdurance, in which objects may be understood through temporal parts or stages.

Among the works are four-dimensional t-shirt worms, a spatial wearable t-shirt loom, wool aerogel and an ongoing suint-fermentation experiment in which anaerobic microbial activity becomes part of the material process.

Wool aerogel, SEM image. Credit: Anniken Haver Lilleby and Vegard Stubberud.

The exhibition is conceived as a cultivation ground: an assemblage of textiles and garment's after lives, microorganisms, air, water, soil and material processes that draws on the spatial logics of the laboratory, aquarium and greenhouse.

Flatland forms part of Rubecksen’s artistic research PhD project Reactive and Proactive Materials in the Anthropocene, situated across Trondheim Academy of Fine Art and the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at NTNU. Curated by Carl Martin Rosenkilde Faurby.

Events

24 September 2026, 17:00–20:00
Opening: Hilde Stiegler Rubecksen, Flatland
Facebook-event

24 September 2026, 19:00
Beyond the White Cube: A Conversation on Artistic Research in Public Space. With Hilde Stiegler Rubecksen, Joe Lockwood and Heather Frasch, moderated by Carl Martin Faurby.
The conversation will be held in English.
Facebook-event

Part of NTNU Artistic Research Week 2026.

Venue: KULLBINGEN, Strandveien 94, Nyhavna
Exhibition period: 24.09–25.10.2026
Opening hours: Saturday–Sunday, 12:00–16:00
Admission: Free

Hilde Stiegler Rubecksen. Photo: Poppy Lucinda Rowland.

T-shirt loom

About the artist

Hilde Stiegler Rubecksen is an artist, designer and researcher undertaking a cross-disciplinary artistic PhD across Trondheim Academy of Fine Art (KIT) and TrollLabs in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at NTNU. Her research focuses on wool, regenerative and speculative materials and textiles, and on how garments are understood through time in relation to sustainability.

She holds an MA in Fashion Womenswear from the Royal College of Art, London, and has a background in fashion design, consultancy, teaching, trend forecasting and entrepreneurship. She is also involved in Horizon Europe project PACESETTERS, EIT Culture & Creativity’s Fashion SHIFT Strategic Topic Group, and NTNU Create.