Emilia Bergmark







Photograpy by Malle Madsen
    Norrlands Flora i Färg , 2023
Terravision, Von Bartha Copenhagen, DK, 2024 Varde

Digital woven tapestry in plant dyed wool, 170 x 210 cm.
Norrlands Flora i Färglooks upon the meadows of north Sweden and its flora. During a recidency in the north of Sweden, Bergmark was interested in meadows, an inherently antropocentric type of landscape with a rich flora and fauna. Meadows and the rich biological diversity they are home to, are rapidly disappearing from the Scandinavian landscape as traditional farming with gracing cattle is replaced with industrial large scale agriculture.


The sketches from the residency was developed into a three-part-tapestry woven at a digital loom during a residency at Statens Værksteder for Kunst. It is a narrative tapestry that is a portrait of a landscape through its flora, and a portrait of time, by way of the changes to that flora. The material that make up the tapestry is Swedish wool dyed in the eighties by the artist’s mother with local plants. Using this plant dyed yarn Bergmark portrays the wild flowers of the meadow. The material’s history is closely tied to the motif itself –the yarn is spun from wool, cut from sheep that graced the meadow and given colour by flowers from that same landscape.


The tapesty is part of the ongoing research project Human Nature (2021–2026). Here the artist creates a series of narrative tapestries about the post-industrial nature in Scandinavia. Each work focuses on a specific landscape and the stories and creatures that inhabit it.