Rv. 555 Sotrasambandet
Acrylic on transparent, mostly recycled panels
Acrylic on transparent, mostly recycled panels
Beneath the surface of progress lies a tension between order and chaos, between human ambition and the living systems it reshapes.
The series invites reflection on how infrastructure, economy, and ecology are woven together — revealing both the power and the fragility of the world we build.
The series invites reflection on how infrastructure, economy, and ecology are woven together — revealing both the power and the fragility of the world we build.
gitte sætre, 2025
118 x 74 cm
Gitte Sætre
100 cm x 74 cm
gitte sætre, 2025
120 cm x 80 cm
gitte sætre, 2025
118 cm x 74 cm
gitte sætre
118 cm x74 cm
gitte sætre
118 cm x 74 cm
gitte sætre
118 cm x 74 cm
250 x100 cm
details
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5 x 30 cm x 42 cm 33cc cm x 42
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2x 78 cm x 52 cm
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2 x 30 cm x 40 cm
Rv. 555 SotrasambandetPaintings offer more than an aesthetic experience; they tell us something about how our surroundings have been perceived. You might think that Norwegians care for their nature, yet in the past five years alone, 44,000 natural sites have been altered for roads, housing, sports arenas, shopping centers, and aquaculture facilities. According to an NRK investigation, the country is losing 79 square meters of nature—every minute.
Throughout history, artists have been fascinated by nature, depicting it—soberly or sublimely.
The Rv. 555 Sotrasambandet painting series captures the dramatic transformation of Norway’s landscape through the construction of a 9.4-kilometer highway—4.6 kilometers of it through tunnels—connecting the oil and gas facilities at Kolltveit in Øygarden to Storavatnet in Bergen. Designed to accommodate industrial transport, oil, gas, and a new port to receive minerals from deep-sea mining—as well as a growing commuter population, including a planned coastal town of 10,000 residents—this project aims to reduce rush-hour travel by up to 20 minutes. It includes a new 900-meter, four-lane bridge with pedestrian and cycling lanes. With a total budget of NOK 23.1 billion (as of 2022), it stands as the largest single contract ever awarded by the Norwegian Public Roads Administration.
Through a series of paintings, Rv. 555 Sotrasambandet documents this massive infrastructure development. Visually striking and emotionally resonant, the works follow the phases of construction: earth torn open, mountains drilled and blasted, asphalt poured, bridges erected, stones hauled, and waters displaced—while nature attempts to recover. Plants and animals tentatively return, reclaiming fragments of their disrupted habitats.
Beneath reason and territorial definitions lies a fertile chaos—a field of forces from which every system of order emerges. Infrastructure is one expression of this will to order. The Sotrasambandet transforms landscape into logistics, weaving itself into the everyday circulation of people, goods, and capital. Its bridges and tunnels are both technological and symbolic—a material narrative of progress, connectivity, and control. Yet every act of order carries a trace of violence. Wetlands are drained, habitats displaced, and light and noise reshape the rhythms of other species.
The project mirrors a wider global logic: the merging of economy, technology, and ecology into a single system that sustains and destabilizes life at once. Sotrasambandet is thus not only an infrastructure project, but an ecological and cultural event—a manifestation of how human order continuously reorganizes the living world.