Experiment – Eider and Farmer

The eider duck and the farmer have a mutually beneficial relationship. The farmer protects the duck during nesting and in return gathers the remaining down from the nest. The valuable down, claimed to be the best insulating material in the world, is a side-product that the duck leaves behind. The eider returns every year to the same farmer, a life-time symbiotic relationship between duck and human.

The eider and eider farming are under threat by climate change as well as by changes in lifestyle, with people moving from the farmlands into cities. Learning from this sustainable but gradually declining nordic heritage, the project gives rise to innovation and production of new artworks. Fresh viewpoints emerge, as well as thoughts on how we treat our environment and harvest our planet.

Experiment – Eider and Farmer, is more than an exhibition. It is an artistic research project that started in the year 2019, with a group of outstanding artists from Denmark, Iceland and Norway with diverse backgrounds in Design, Architecture, Fine Art, Music, Craft, Fashion and Performing Arts. Since the eider stays on land only around 25 days per year, the artists wanted to have more opportunities to visit the ducks so therefor stretched the research period over three years. They went on group excursions as well as on individual visits, to get to know a broad spectrum of eider farmers, their diverse methods and the eiders habitats.

Eider ducks make sounds as if they’ve just been told something interesting, or even saucy. Ah-hoo, Ah-hoo!! Like a group of gossiping ladies. It is easy to be charmed by this lovely chorus. We hope this project inspires you. May there be plenty of AH-HOO moments in the exhibition as well as the next time you come across an Eider.

Experiment – Eider and Farmer will open in Hvelfing on 7th of May at 17:00 and run until 31st of July.