As part of the European Capital of Culture 2024, Grace Ellen Barkey is showing two new installations ‘Solastalgia’ and ‘Windows & Mosaic of Leaves’ at Salzkammergut, Austria.

Grace Ellen Barkey has photographed plants, their structures, their blossoming and their decay. While visiting Salzkammergut, Barkey observed how climate change affects this region. This has inspired her to create the work Solastalgia. She has filmed a lonely tree in the vicinity of a construction site. It was beautiful, but its leaves were made from waste plastic. Barkey imagines a world without nature and has conceived a poetic garden with a horrible prophecy that would transform the vacant train station in Ebensee into a dystopic garden. The term ‘Solastalgia’ describes grief referring to the sense of loss that arises from experiencing environmental destruction or climate change.