Artist: Katrin Woelger
Venue: Sauvasshytta, the highest cabin in the DNT Rana region of Northern Norway
Concept: In her ongoing artistic series, Katrin Woelger places herself in specific landscapes for extended periods of time. Her practice unfolds through presence, repetition, and sensory labor. Woelger appears as a timeless working figure: a woman situated somewhere and nowhere, engaged in processes of care, attention, and transformation. Smell and taste function as primary artistic materials.
CM & C !!! Come and Smell! was realized in August 2024 at Sauvasshytta, the highest cabin in the DNT Rana region of Northern Norway. For five days, Woelger lived and worked in an emergency cabin above the tree line. The site functioned simultaneously as living space, laboratory, kitchen, and performance setting.
The title CM & C !!! Come and Smell! carries a deliberate ambiguity. It points to the scents distilled from the landscape, while also acknowledging the presence of bodies moving through it—marked by effort, duration, and proximity. Human presence is understood not only visually, but as part of the broader sensory atmosphere of the place.
At the center of the work was distillation. Using a small still, lake water, and a wide range of organic materials—plants, roots, bark, berries, and other found matter—the artist produced olfactory extracts on site. Hikers were invited to bring materials from their surroundings, which were transformed into small vials of translucent fluid. These vials act as sensory flashbacks: condensed carriers capable of reactivating a moment through scent—the effort of walking, the weather, the encounter—echoing the Proust phenomenon.
Taste was equally present. Woelger prepared simple meals from basic ingredients such as flour and lentils, incorporating locally growing plants into the food. Eating became another way of sensing the landscape from within.
The series continues with an extended research phase in Austria in 2026, followed by a further durational performance planned for Malta in 2027.
