Fuglefotdelta

⏝ Save the date: 03.10.2026 — Symposium #1 at Årnestangen ⏜

On listening with Nordre Øyeren

By Magdaléna Manderlová

In early 2024, I began researching and visiting a place a stone’s throw from Oslo — Nordre Øyeren naturreservat, located across Lillestrøm, Rælingen and Enebakk. This reserve is the largest inland delta of Scandinavia, where the rivers Glomma, Leira and Nitelva mouth into Øyeren lake, and form a complex wetland system of branching rivers, swamps, lagoons, coves, islands, and canals. Tens of thousands of migratory birds stop here to rest during their seasonal journeys. What makes them glide over and land on the exact same waters each spring and fall?                                           

Later, I joined the local birdwatching community, Nordre Øyeren fuglestasjon (NØF) Established in 1973, NØF, a civic society, was and is central to the fight to protect Nordre Øyeren. What these folks possess is place-based knowledge and understanding of the local environments, even more, many of the members have ancestral and emotional ties to Øyeren. Although their methods also include standard monitoring activities and collecting data, their approach can be more experiential and based on personal curiosity and intuition than the traditional scientific methods, which I find utterly inspiring. Together with my previous interests in birdlife, sound and place, I was drawn to start a new project there.                                                   

Both birds and wetlands are considered strong indicators of planetary health, and although Nordre Øyeren is now protected both nationally and internationally, it faces recurring political pressures connected to water management and urban development in addition to the results of the local-global ecological crises. Last year, a small part of Nordre Øyeren Naturreservat in Fetsund was «unprotected» (ref. avfrede) by the state in order to build a new bridge. In Norway, «naturreservat» has the strongest form of protection — but this example questions that idea, and resonates with ecological and political events and transformations occurring at a planetary scale, where wetlands and floodplains are disappearing through urban development and drought.                           

What springs from these experiences and ideas is Fuglefotdelta — a process-based project about developing one’s sense of presence in a place, which asks:                           

What emerges from long-term, attending and listening to Nordre Øyeren?

How can artistic work facilitate sensitising, create connections and cultivate care between people and  the land?

Fuglefotdelta is a long-term, artistic project at Nordre Øyeren and a collaboration between Amalie Risom Nyrup, Ferdinand Schwarz, Jiska Huizing and myself—Magdaléna Manderlová, in partnership with Nordre Øyeren fuglestasjon, Besøksenter våtmark Nordre Øyeren and Nitja senter for samtidskunst.                           

Three collective trips took place throughout this spring. We are very thankful to NØF for letting us use the station cabin at Årnestangen as a base for our fieldwork.                           

June 30th, 2026

Kind thanks to Akershus fylkeskommune, Billedkunstnernes Hjelpefond stipend, Nordic Culture Point and Nordisk Kulturfond for the support.                           

Logo design: Kateřina Havelková                           

Receive our newsletter to you mailbox –
sign up for it through the contact form below.