Zentrum für interdisziplinäre Forschung

A warm welcome to Anna Líndal, who will be working as an Artist in Residence at ZiF until 15 December!

In addition to its scientific endeavours and focus, ZiF promotes artistic perspectives and interventions and organises art exhibitions as well as performances on its premises. The goal of this line of funding is to intensify the dialogue between sciences and the arts.

Anna Líndal is a Reykjavík-based visual artist whose research-led practice explores the intersections of science, nature, and societal structures. Her work delves into the fragility of everyday life and examines the dynamic relationship between human systems and natural processes. Drawing from her own experiences in nature and her participation in expeditions with scientists, she investigates how measurement, scale, and temporality shape our understanding of the world, particularly how human and geological time scales converge in objects and environments. We asked Anna Líndal about her first impressions, her plans and the relation of the arts and sciences. 

Anna Líndal, Artist in Residence at ZiF. (c) Anna Líndal

What is your first impression of ZiF? 

I’ve only been here for a few days, but I can already feel a strong sense of ambition and curiosity at ZiF. I’m particularly impressed by the way the architecture creates an environment that encourages collaboration, and by the enthusiasm and commitment of the people working here. What fascinates me about ZiF is the philosophy behind it: creating time, space, and funding for collaborative, interdisciplinary research. To me, offering these conditions for people from such different fields is a rare and important idea in contemporary society.

What are you plans for your stay?

I came to ZiF with four terabytes of video footage in my hand luggage. Material from research expeditions with Iceland Glaciological Society on Vatnajökull, collected over a period of three decades. I’ve been working with this footage for some time, but now I’m looking for new surprises in the material, and new ways of approaching it. Not simply as an archive of a particular landscape and natural forces, but as a starting point for new questions and new forms of research. ZiF brings me the opportunity to step outside my usual way of working and to bring the material into conversation with other disciplines and perspectives.

What are your thoughts on the relationship between the arts and sciences?

Artists and scientists have much in common. Both practices are rooted in individual forms of research and often require an interdisciplinary approach. Both seek ways of generating understanding that move beyond what has already been established. For three decades, I have worked alongside scientists, primarily earth scientists in the field, carrying out research as well as other forms of investigation. The nature of these collaborations has varied considerably, from working closely together on specific projects, where both parties contribute to and benefit from the conclusion to more open-ended encounters and exchanges. The relationship between the researcher and their subject has been intriguing: the ways in which observation, curiosity, and proximity shape what can be discovered. For me, the aesthetics of research are a rich and inexhaustible source of inspiration. They emerge not only in the knowledge that research produces, but also in the processes, tools, environments, and encounters through which that knowledge comes into being.

Anna Líndal is also preparing an exhibition to be shown at ZiF next year.