SPECTRAL FRAGMENTS

Strange phenomena are being reported across Vega and Handen. Modern infrastructural objects have begun to appear eerily transformed, showing biological traits of swamp species. Archeological excavations have revealed artifacts hinting at an intimate entanglement between human culture and the region's former wetlands. Local observers speculate that wetland species are returning and haunting the infrastructure that replaced them.

Before urban expansion, the area of Vega and Handen included wetlands. As the land was drained, many habitats and species disappeared, mirroring the broader loss of wetlands across Sweden. These ecosystems are not only biodiversity hotspots; they are also powerful carbon sinks and play a crucial role in regulating climate. 

The research-driven art and design collective Nonhuman Nonsense presents a speculative mapping that juxtaposes archaeological finds, endangered wetland species, haunted objects, and fragmentary notes and quotes. By blurring fact and fiction, memory and imagination, the work becomes an associative excavation in which material residues, ecological knowledge, mythic objects, and uncanny testimonies coexist. What emerges in this connection between fragments of various temporalities are stories of disappearing wetlands, haunted memory, and the entanglement of natureculture.

Ultimately, the piece acts as a mnemonic device, inviting viewers to read these fragments as clues to larger narratives of wetlands, extinction, remembrance, and the ways the past continues to haunt the present.