Never ground

Natália Trejbalová presents Never ground, a new site-specific video installation and set of objects, in the basement of Pálffy Palace. This work belongs to a series of videos that Trejbalová has been creating since 2020, the central theme of which is the perception of our planet as a physical entity in constant evolution and transformation.

The project is inspired by science fiction stories about the Earth’s subterranean world and latest scientific discoveries that connect speleological exploration with space research – for example, astronaut training includes a caving course during which participants experience situations similar to those in space: they need to stay constantly alert in an inhospitable alien environment, make critical decisions, and rely on each other. The artist is also fascinated by the vast rise in popularity of the flat Earth theory. Perceiving our planet from the perspective of its surface, we know little about the spaces beneath, the various cavities, the interconnections, and we are only indirectly able to surmise what they hide – the various organisms adapted to extreme conditions that inspire exploration of the possibilities of life on other celestial bodies. On the Moon, for example, scientists have identified "pits" that are likely to be "skylights" from lava tubes – geological entrances to underground tunnels that were once filled with lava. They may provide habitation for future lunar explorers. During the theoretical research that preceded creation of her work, the artist collaborated with researchers from various fields that included planetary geology, astrobiology, speleology, and microbiology of extreme environments.

The video is a probe into speculative futurological exploration. The author tests the limits of our perception and imagination at the intersection between real ecosystems and fiction. It alternates landscape scenery (a volcano on the island of Vulcano, the Parco geotermico delle Biancane in Tuscany, the Tavaran Grando cave in Veneto) with staged shots that lead through gaps in the exhibited objects and merge into a single path linked into a loop by a tunnel. The objects in the exhibition were created primarily to stage certain scenes in the video, such as the passage through a crystalline tunnel – a space-time cave. Trejbalová's inspiration for this form of filming came from early science fiction films made before the digital video era, including the films of Karel Zeman, that used analogue special effects and props.

The composition of this space-time trajectory is based on the structure of Jules Verne's novel Journey to the centre of the Earth (1864), in which the protagonists traverse the interior of the Earth, entering its bowels through a volcano on the Icelandic peninsula of Snæfellsnes and emerging through the Stromboli volcano in the Mediterranean Sea. The author builds on the novel by considering a passage through planet Earth to another cosmic body.

The video also encourages the metaphorical reflection that a journey beneath the surface into the interior (perhaps even one's own) can be an adventure and exploration that leads us to other unexpected worlds "beyond" Earth. The spiritual and physical experience is enhanced by vocal improvisation from the singer Adele Altro, with whom Natália Trejbalová previously collaborated on the video About mirages and stolen stones.