Omphalos-The Navel of the World

The work examines how spatial hierarchies that positioned humans at center with nature as backdrop no longer hold. Similarly, the vertical structures that once connected different scales—earth to sky, body to cosmos, personal to planetary—have lost their stability. When these organizing principles dissolve, how do we practice placement? Far from depicting harmonious interconnection, I acknowledge that our strongest experiences of porosity often emerge through distress, illness, and loss. This isn't glorification of destruction but an investigation of placement when boundaries between body and environment, self and world, have become permeable.

How do we create spatial and aesthetic vocabularies for ecological crisis? What practices of placement emerge when we accept rather than deny our permeable boundaries? How do we maintain relationships across vastly different scales without resorting to outdated models of transcendence or domination?

The project develops through interconnected chapters examining scales of relation: "Omphalos" investigates the navel as hollow center; subsequent work explores breath, illness, and material transformation. Outputs include literary essays, installations, and occasional theatrical collaborations. The research contributes to artistic research discourse on ecological relations while developing practical approaches for spatial practice in conditions of systemic change.

Cecilia Roos

Lina Selander

Four years, 4-7 chapters, outputs as installations, performance lectures, and essays.