huldufólk

In Iceland, the landscape is not an empty stage.
Across lava fields, volcanic rocks and silent hills, the unseen is understood not as absence, but as presence—something that shapes how people move, build, and relate to the territory.

The Huldufólk, or hidden people, belong to a system of beliefs where myth and reality coexist without contradiction. They are not simply figures of folklore, but part of a cultural framework through which the environment is perceived, respected, and negotiated. What remains invisible is not dismissed, but acknowledged as part of a wider, more complex reality.

This project approaches the Huldufólk not as something to be revealed, but as something that resists visibility. It explores the limits of representation and the ways in which different forms of perception define our understanding of the world.

In this sense, the work also opens a reflection on how reality is experienced differently—how certain ways of seeing, sensing, or relating to the environment may fall outside dominant norms. Conditions such as Autism Spectrum Disorder or Down syndrome remind us that perception is not singular, but multiple, and that what is often considered “invisible” may simply exist beyond a shared or standardized way of seeing.

Rather than offering answers, the project invites a slower engagement with the landscape—one that embraces uncertainty, ambiguity, and the possibility that not everything needs to be fully understood in order to be present.