Isadora Alves & Christoph Matt
in dialogue with Céline Mandon
Archives of the Earth
26.3.–2.4.2026
Opening, Thursday, 26.3.2026, 6–9 PM
Regular opening hours: 27.3.–2.4.2026, hours on socials
Hafnar.haus, Tryggvagata 17, entrance a, second floor
show
Thursday, 26.3.2026, 6–9 pm, Opening (A-Horizon)
Archives of the Earth is an ongoing site-specific research-performance that explores the dynamic and disruptive environment of the Reykjanes peninsula, following its renewed volcanic activity in 2021. The research consists of on-site printmaking and text writing at coordinates of past and potential future eruptions, creating a layered record of geological and embodied encounters with the landscape.
The performance unfolds as an act of endurance, stillness and observation in sites of visible transformation. While questioning what it takes to capture these fleeting moments and fragments of disruption, the practice investigates the possibilities and alternatives of contemporary landscape archiving. This exhibition is a rare first glimpse into the process of this ongoing research. A sensorial multi-layered archive emerging from encounters between artist duo Isadora Alves and Christoph Matt (Deer Dear), in dialogue with volcanologist Céline Mandon, and participating fellows of a vast art and science network.
All gathered by the same shifting landscape and moment in geological time, gazing towards the volcanic abbys of Reykjanes.
Friday, 27.3.2026, 6–7 pm, Dialogue and drinks (B-Horizon)
An afterwork art and science dialogue with diverse experts of volatile soils and gases reflecting on more-than-human and human narratives and of what might lie below and on the surface of these disruptive landscapes.
Thursday, 2.4.2026, 6–7 pm, Drawing and drinks (C-Horizon)
At the finissage hosted by artist Isadora Alves, we gather to open and question the methods developed through three years of performance research with Archives of the Earth in volcanic soil. Through writing and bodily practices, we will search for renewed connections with our environment, exploring our senses and deepening our awareness of the body in space. Together we’ll experiment with how the body can open to perceive the landscape through other ways of looking by focusing on the back body and on practices that support the regulation of the nervous system.
Supported by Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, LEICA Camera Austria, and Büro Ludwina
artists
Isadora Alves is a Portuguese artist and actor working across performance, sculpture, film and writing. Her projects often unfold as performances in the landscape, where light becomes a central material of investigation. She has been focused on extreme environments, ecological transformation and how living beings live through it. She works regularly as an actor in cinema and theatre with her work as both artist and performer presented across multiple international contexts. She sometimes teaches, writes and collaborates with artists, scientists, shepherds, mystics and local communities. She is a co-founder of the collective Sympoietic Society.
More information via isadoraalves.cargo.site @isa_do_ra
Christoph Matt is an Austrian eco-social designer and interdisciplinary creative practitioner currently based between Vienna and Reykjavik, whose work explores the entangled relationships between human and more-than-human actors. At the heart of his practice lies a deep commitment to ecological and social thinking, participatory design methods and artistic inquiry. Studio Matt | Eco-Social Design was founded to enact design as an impact-oriented force for good and system change. The studio has earned international recognition for its work that spans artistic research, field-based exploration, sustainable design, visual arts, participatory methods and workshops. These works investigate themes such as posthumanism, relational ecologies, and more-than-human agency. He co-founded the Sympoietic Society art collective and Dear Deer artist duo with Isadora Alves and is currently a board member and editor of the Design and Posthumanism network.
More information via christophmatt.com @christophmatt
Celine Mandon is a volcanologist originally from France, where her fascination with volcanoes began at an early age. She studied Earth sciences and began her research in Sicily, working on volcanic gases and hydrothermal waters. She later received a PhD scholarship in New Zealand, focusing on metal emissions from the White Island volcano. Her research centers on volcanic gases, using the composition of fluids emitted by volcanoes to better understand magma processes at depth and degassing dynamics. She has been living in Iceland for the past four years, working first at the University of Iceland and, since 2024, at the Icelandic Meteorological Office. The renewed volcanic activity on the Reykjanes Peninsula has been a central focus of her work, both during eruptions—studying the nature of magmatic gases and their influence on volcanic activity—and through the monitoring of geothermal areas to detect shifts in activity.