To celebrate staying alive for seventy years I decided to return to an old work – Sitting on a Birch – which I also call My fiftieth Year from 2006, when I travelled to Koivumäki every Sunday and sat on the outgrowth of a birch there. And decided to make it easier and choose a tree to sit on in my vicinity, one in Stockholm and one in Helsinki. The oak (probably an oak) I lean on the 10th January 2026 in the image above is growing on Fredhäll cliffs in Kungsholmen and the willow (probably a willow) I sit on the 17th January 2026, in the image below, is growing in the southwestern corner of Kaivopuisto park. The time is Saturday, if possible, Saturnus’ day. The blue and grey scarf is the same. If all goes well this will become two video works or perhaps a two-channel installation.
All posts by Annette Arlander
Mitt sjuttionde år
För att fira det faktum att jag hållits vid liv i sjuttio år bestämde jag mig för att återvända till ett gammalt arbete – Sitting on a Birch – som jag också kallar mitt femtionde år från 2006, då jag reste till Koivumäki varje söndag och satt på en knöl på en björk där. Och beslöt att göra det lättare genom att välja ett träd i närheten, ett i Stockholm och ett i Helsingfors. Eken (antagligen en ek) som jag lutar mot den 10.1.2026 i bilden här ovan växer på Fredhällsklippan på Kungsholmen och pilen (antagligen en pil) jag sitter på den 17.1.2026 i bilden här nedan växer i den sydvästra delen av Brunnsparken. Tidpunkten är om möjligt lördagen, saturnus dag. Den blå och grå duken är densamma. Om allt går väl blir det här till två videoarbeten eller en tudelad videoinstallation.
Seitsemäskymmenes vuoteni
Juhlistaakseni sitä, että olen pysynyt hengissä seitsemänkymmentä vuotta palasin vanhaan työhön – Istun koivulla – jota kutsun myös nimellä viideskymmenes vuoteni, jolloin matkustin Koivumäkeen joka sunnuntai ja istuin siellä koivunpahkan päällä. Ja päätin tehdä sen helpommaksi valitsemalla puun lähistöltä, yhden Tukholmassa ja yhden Helsingissä. Tammi (luultavasti tammi) johon nojaan 10.1.2026 kuvassa yllä kasvaa Fredhällin kallioilla Kungsholmenilla ja paju (luultavasti paju) jolla istun 17.1.2026 kuvassa alla kasvaa Kaivopuiston lounaiskulmassa. Ajankohta on mahdollisuuksien mukaan lauantai, saturnuksen päivä. Sininen ja harmaa huivi on sama. Jos kaikki sujuu hyvin tästä tulee kaksi videotyötä tai ehkä kaksikanavainen videoinstallaatio.
Thank you 2025 – Welcome 2026
My 69th year was my first year as a pensioner, and in the beginning that seemed like a big change. Because I had a working grant the years before the change was not that remarkable; I continued with my practice at my own pace and accepted some small teaching or reviewing assignments on the side. After the three-year project Pondering with Pines, which ended in 2024, I created an informal project, Joining Junipers, as a transition activity. And that has worked rather well, including monthly meetings with three junipers, two of them in Helsinki and one in Stockholm, published as podcast episodes as well. The major change looming on the horizon, which I have been preparing for and which will take place only this coming spring, is leaving my studio on Harakka Island, where I have been since 1997. And the challenge is not only in sorting all the stuff but also finding a new studio, probably or hopefully in Lapinlahti, the old hospital in the park near the city center.
I have travelled to Stockholm with the cats Pipo and Pompe every month and also made some trips without them, including two doctoral summerschools, one in Oslo in the spring and the other in Stameriena castle in Latvia in the summer, both of which I really enjoyed. The project Gifts from the Sentient Forest ended this year with an exhibition in Rovaniemi, which I was gallery sitting for a week in the summer and a weekend retreat in Äkäslompolo in the autumn. And I have had the opportunity to join three conferences, the 16th SAR (Society for Artists Research) conference in Porto in May, the IFTR (International Federation for Theatre Research) conference in Cologne in June – where I joined the excom (executive committee) meeting for the last time, since my term ended now – and last but not least the 30th PSi (Performance Studies international) conference in Fortaleza in Brasil in December, where I now serve on the board as one of the archivists.
Regarding exhibitions and screenings this has not been a prominent year, although I did have my usual solo show in the Telegraph gallery on Harakka in the summer and participated in the joint exhibition Artists’ Island there in the autumn. And of course I had a work in the Gifts from the Sentient Forest exhibition, too. An old work was shown in Pimento gallery in Oulu in the spring and another one in Bioart society’s screening, but nothing much else to boost of. With publications I have been more prolific, partly because some delayed ones have now finally come out; see the lists below, with the latest on top.
Exhibitions, events and performances in 2025
“With the Juniper on Fredhäll Cliff” (performance response) in the Artistic Research Working Group of PSi (Performance Studies International) at the PSi #30 conference XXX – Cruzo, Cruising, Crossroads in Fortaleza, Brasil 11-15.12.2025.
Year of the Dog – Sitting in a Tree (2007) and Time with a Pine , video poster at Kuva Research Days, Academy of Fine Arts, Uniarts Helsinki 9-12.12.2025.
Shadow of a Pine – Remix in Artists’ Island exhibition on Harakka Island 10.-28.9.2025.
“More Pines – Lisää mäntyjä – Mera tallar” in the Telegraph Gallery on Harakka Island 12-17.8.2025 See also
Day with a Mountain Birch in Night of the Arts at SOLU space: To Notice is to Remember 14.8.2025.
With a Pine at Äkäslompolo in Gifts from the Sentient Forest – exhibitionin
Villa Vinkkeli, Rovaniemi 10.6.-1.8.2025
Day with a Mountain Birch in Bioart Society members’ screening 7.6. and online until 15.6.2025.
“FlowerPower” in the Impossible week peace agora exhibition on Harakka Island 22-25.5.2025.
With the Tarri Pine, Pimento gallery, Oulu, 22.1.-16.2.2025 See info in Finnish
Publications in 2025
“Duration through Repetition – Revisiting as Method”, HUB – Journal of Research in Art, Design and Society, 5 (2025) https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/2797281/2797282/0/0
“Walking in the Woods.” Global Performance Studies 7 (2) (2024). https://doi.org/10.33303/gpsv7n2a122
Arlander, Annette & Pilvi Porkola “Performance” in Karin Murris
“Sunnuntait männyn kanssa – performanssia ja performatiivista kirjoitusta” [Sundays with a Pine – performance and performative writing ] in Pilvi Porkola (ed.) Kirjeitä ja Meritähtiä: Näkökulmia performatiiviseen kirjoittamiseen [Letters and Starfish – Perspectives on Performative Writing] Nivel 22, pp. 57-73 https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-353-100-0
“Talking about sentience” as one of the testimonials on the Gift from the Sentient webpages https://www.sentientforestproject.com/annettearlander
“Liikkuvaa ja lähes liikkumatonta kuvaa mäntyjen kanssa: Miten kohdata puu subjektina?”. [Moving and almost immobile images with pines: How to encounter a tree as a subject?] Lähikuva – audiovisuaalisen kulttuurin tieteellinen julkaisu 38 (3) 2025:51-68. https://doi.org/10.23994/lk.173157
“Esityksestä julkaisuksi. Miten tehdä asioita esityksellä -tutkimushankkeen kokemuksia konferenssiesitysten julkaisemisesta” [From performance to publication] in Teo Kurki, Jari Martikainen, Tuija Saresma, Saara Jäntti ja Sari Pöyhönen (eds.) Taide tietämisen tapana. Nykykulttuurin tutkimuskeskuksen julkaisuja 137, Nykykulttuuri 2025.
“Pondering with Contorta Pines – Towards Post-humanist Approaches in Performance as Research”. Näyttämö ja Tutkimus [Stage and Research] Vol. 11 No 1 (2025), 11-32. See https://journal.fi/teats/article/view/145411
“Public and archivable” in Mika Elo and Maiju Loukola (eds/toim) In Line, online, off the grid / Linjassa, linjoilla, katveessa. Academy of Fine Arts, University of the Arts Helsinki 2025, 252-255.
“Pondering with Örö Pines: Talking with Trees as an Undisciplinary Method”. Plant Perspectives. 2025 https://doi.org/10.3197/WHPPP.63845494909748
“Trees as experts in Site-specificity” in Hunter, Victoria and Cathy Turner (eds.) Routledge Companion to Site-Specific Performance, London & New York: Routledge 2025, 318-328. See here
Talks, papers, presentations and other tasks in 2025
Joining Junipers at the Crossroads (presentation) in the Artistic Research Working Group of PSi (Performance Studies International) at the PSi #30 conference XXX – Cruzo, Cruising, Crossroads in Fortaleza, Brasil 11-15.12.2025.
Examining a performance by Karolin Poska, Estonian Academy of Arts 12-13.11.2025.
Lecture at Aalto doctoral school 6.11.2025.
Panelist in the online event “Plants, Memory, Belonging” organised by Oak Spring Garden & Plant Perspectives 8.10.2025 See poster PMB_2026_Final
“On creating podcast episodes” at the Sentient Forest retreat in Äkäslompolo 5-7.9.2025.
Presentation in Teo Kurki, Jari Martikainen, Tuija Saresma, Saara Jäntti ja Sari Pöyhönen (eds.) Taide tietämisen tapana. Publishing event (webinar) 27.8.2025.
Lecture and workshop at International Doctoral Summer School in Latvia 18-22.8.2025.
“Junipering” (response to Denise Ackerl’s Mermaiding) in the online gathering of the Artistic Research Working group of Psi (Performance studies international) 18.6.2025.
“How to do things with Pinecones: Carnivalizing the undisciplinary?” in the PAR (performance as research) working group at IFTR conference in Cologne 9.-13.6.2025.
“Documenting and Sharing” at seminar 2 of the Norwegian Artistic Research Program, Oslo 13-15.5.2025.
”Performing for a Pine – Resonance in Repetition” at SAR (Society for Artistic Research) conference on Resonance in Porto 8-9.5.2025.
Participating in the Kone Forest Dialogue conversation as part of the Gifts from the Sentient Forest project 2.4.2025
“Finding the Research Question in Speculative Creative Practice” conversation with Roy Hanney in the seminar series Research for Creative Media: Practice and Pedagogy (online) 12.2.2025 See recording
Tack 2025 – Välkommen 2026
Mitt 69:nde år var mitt första år som pensionär, och först kändes det som en stor förändring. Eftersom jag haft ett arbetsstipendium under åren innan var förändringen inte så betydande; jag fortsatte med mitt konstnärsarbete i egen takt och tog emot små undervisnings- och gransknings uppdrag på sidan om. Efter det treåriga projektet Funderar med furor, som avslutades 2024, skapade jag ett informellt projekt Enig med enris, som ett slags övergångssysselsättning. Och det har fungerat rätt bra, inklusive månatliga möten med tre enar, två av dem i Helsingfors och en i Stockholm, även publicerade som podcast episoder.
Den stora förändringen som hägrar vid horisonten som jag förberett mig för men som sker först nu i vår är att jag skall lämna mitt arbetsrum på Stora Räntan där jag varit sedan 1997. Och utmana ingen är inte enbart att röja och reda ut alla saker utan också att hitta ett nytt arbetsrum, förmodligen och förhoppningsvis i Lappviken, det gamla sjukhuset i parken nära centrum.
Jag har rest till Stockholm med katterna Pipo och Pompe varje månad och även gjort några resor utan dem, inbegripet till två sommarskolor för doktorander, en i Oslo på våren och en på Stameriena slottet i Lettland på sommaren, och som jag verkligen njöt av, båda. Projektet Gifts from the Sentient Forest slutade i år med en utställning i Rovaniemi, som jag var gallerivakt för en vecka, och en weekend retreat i Äkäslompolo på hösten. Och jag har dessutom haft möjlighet att delta i tre konferenser, den 16:nde SAR (Society for Artists Research) konferensen i Porto i Maj, IFTR (International Federation for Theatre Research) konferensen i Köln i juni – där jag deltog i excom (executive committee) mötet för den sista gången, då min period tog slut nu – och sist men inte minst den 30:nde PSi (Performance Studies international) konferensen i Fortaleza i Brasilien i december, där jag nu är med i styrelsen som en av arkivarierna.
Beträffande utställningar och visningar har det här året inte varit särskilt betydande, även om jag hade min sedvanliga soloutställning i Telegraf galleriet på Stora Räntan på sommaren och deltog även i grupputställningen Konstnärernas ö där på hösten. Och givetvis hade jag ett arbete med på Gifts from the Sentient Forest utställningen också. Ett gammalt verk visades i Pimento galleriet i Uleåborg på våren och ett annat verk var med på Bioart society:s visning, men inte så mycket annat att skryta över. Med publikationer har jag varit mer produktiv, delvis för att vissa texter som blivit fördröjda nu äntligen givits ut. Se listan på engelska här nedan, med de nyaste överst.
Utställningar, evenemang och performance år 2025
“With the Juniper on Fredhäll Cliff” (performance response) in the Artistic Research Working Group of PSi (Performance Studies International) at the PSi #30 conference XXX – Cruzo, Cruising, Crossroads in Fortaleza, Brasil 11-15.12.2025.
Year of the Dog – Sitting in a Tree (2007) and Time with a Pine , video poster at Kuva Research Days, Academy of Fine Arts, Uniarts Helsinki 9-12.12.2025.
Shadow of a Pine – Remix in Artists’ Island exhibition on Harakka Island 10.-28.9.2025.
“More Pines – Lisää mäntyjä – Mera tallar” in the Telegraph Gallery on Harakka Island 12-17.8.2025 See also
Day with a Mountain Birch in Night of the Arts at SOLU space: To Notice is to Remember 14.8.2025.
With a Pine at Äkäslompolo in Gifts from the Sentient Forest – exhibitionin
Villa Vinkkeli, Rovaniemi 10.6.-1.8.2025
Day with a Mountain Birch in Bioart Society members’ screening 7.6. and online until 15.6.2025.
“FlowerPower” in the Impossible week peace agora exhibition on Harakka Island 22-25.5.2025.
With the Tarri Pine, Pimento gallery, Oulu, 22.1.-16.2.2025 See info in Finnish
Publikationer år 2025
“Duration through Repetition – Revisiting as Method”, HUB – Journal of Research in Art, Design and Society, 5 (2025) https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/2797281/2797282/0/0
“Walking in the Woods.” Global Performance Studies 7 (2) (2024). https://doi.org/10.33303/gpsv7n2a122
Arlander, Annette & Pilvi Porkola “Performance” in Karin Murris
“Sunnuntait männyn kanssa – performanssia ja performatiivista kirjoitusta” [Sundays with a Pine – performance and performative writing ] in Pilvi Porkola (ed.) Kirjeitä ja Meritähtiä: Näkökulmia performatiiviseen kirjoittamiseen [Letters and Starfish – Perspectives on Performative Writing] Nivel 22, pp. 57-73 https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-353-100-0
“Talking about sentience” as one of the testimonials on the Gift from the Sentient webpages https://www.sentientforestproject.com/annettearlander
“Liikkuvaa ja lähes liikkumatonta kuvaa mäntyjen kanssa: Miten kohdata puu subjektina?”. [Moving and almost immobile images with pines: How to encounter a tree as a subject?] Lähikuva – audiovisuaalisen kulttuurin tieteellinen julkaisu 38 (3) 2025:51-68. https://doi.org/10.23994/lk.173157
“Esityksestä julkaisuksi. Miten tehdä asioita esityksellä -tutkimushankkeen kokemuksia konferenssiesitysten julkaisemisesta” [From performance to publication] in Teo Kurki, Jari Martikainen, Tuija Saresma, Saara Jäntti ja Sari Pöyhönen (eds.) Taide tietämisen tapana. Nykykulttuurin tutkimuskeskuksen julkaisuja 137, Nykykulttuuri 2025.
“Pondering with Contorta Pines – Towards Post-humanist Approaches in Performance as Research”. Näyttämö ja Tutkimus [Stage and Research] Vol. 11 No 1 (2025), 11-32. See https://journal.fi/teats/article/view/145411
“Public and archivable” in Mika Elo and Maiju Loukola (eds/toim) In Line, online, off the grid / Linjassa, linjoilla, katveessa. Academy of Fine Arts, University of the Arts Helsinki 2025, 252-255.
“Pondering with Örö Pines: Talking with Trees as an Undisciplinary Method”. Plant Perspectives. 2025 https://doi.org/10.3197/WHPPP.63845494909748
“Trees as experts in Site-specificity” in Hunter, Victoria and Cathy Turner (eds.) Routledge Companion to Site-Specific Performance, London & New York: Routledge 2025, 318-328. See here
Föreläsningar, presentationer och andra uppdrag år 2025
Joining Junipers at the Crossroads (presentation) in the Artistic Research Working Group of PSi (Performance Studies International) at the PSi #30 conference XXX – Cruzo, Cruising, Crossroads in Fortaleza, Brasil 11-15.12.2025.
Examining a performance by Karolin Poska, Estonian Academy of Arts 12-13.11.2025.
Lecture at Aalto doctoral school 6.11.2025.
Panelist in the online event “Plants, Memory, Belonging” organised by Oak Spring Garden & Plant Perspectives 8.10.2025 See poster PMB_2026_Final
“On creating podcast episodes” at the Sentient Forest retreat in Äkäslompolo 5-7.9.2025.
Presentation in Teo Kurki, Jari Martikainen, Tuija Saresma, Saara Jäntti ja Sari Pöyhönen (eds.) Taide tietämisen tapana. Publishing event (webinar) 27.8.2025.
Lecture and workshop at International Doctoral Summer School in Latvia 18-22.8.2025.
“Junipering” (response to Denise Ackerl’s Mermaiding) in the online gathering of the Artistic Research Working group of Psi (Performance studies international) 18.6.2025.
“How to do things with Pinecones: Carnivalizing the undisciplinary?” in the PAR (performance as research) working group at IFTR conference in Cologne 9.-13.6.2025.
“Documenting and Sharing” at seminar 2 of the Norwegian Artistic Research Program, Oslo 13-15.5.2025.
”Performing for a Pine – Resonance in Repetition” at SAR (Society for Artistic Research) conference on Resonance in Porto 8-9.5.2025.
Participating in the Kone Forest Dialogue conversation as part of the Gifts from the Sentient Forest project 2.4.2025
“Finding the Research Question in Speculative Creative Practice” conversation with Roy Hanney in the seminar series Research for Creative Media: Practice and Pedagogy (online) 12.2.2025 See recording
Kiitos 2025 – Tervetuloa 2026
Kuudeskymmenesyhdeksäs vuoteni oli ensimmäinen vuoteni eläkeläisenä ja aluksi se tuntui isolta muutokselta. Koska minulla oli ollut työskentelyapuraha edeltävinä vuosina ei muutos ollut kovin huomattava. Jatkoin työskentelyäni omaan tahtiin ja vastaanotin pieniä opetus tai tarkastustehtäviä siinä sivussa. Kolmivuotisen hankkeen Miettii mäntyjen kanssa jälkeen, joka päättyi 2024, loin epämuodollisen hankkeen Katajien kanssa eräänlaiseksi ylimenotoiminnaksi. Ja se on toiminut melko hyvin, sisältäen kuukausittaiset tapaamiset kolmen katajan kanssa, kaksi Helsingissä ja yksi Tukholmassa, jotka on julkaistu myös podcastjaksoina. Suurin horisontissa väijyvä muutos, johon olen yrittänyt valmistautua ja joka tapahtuu vasta tulevana keväänä on lähtö työhuoneestani Harakassa, jossa olen ollut vuodesta 1997. Haasteena ei ole vain setviä kaikki tavarat vaan myös löytää uusi työhuone, luultavasti ja toivottavasti Lapinlahdesta, vanhasta sairaalasta puistossa lähellä keskustaa.
Olen matkustanut Tukholmaan Pipo ja Pompe kissojen kanssa joka kuukausi ja myös tehnyt joitakin matkoja ilman heitä, mukaan luettuina kaksi tohtoriopiskelijoiden kesäkoulua, ensimmäinen keväällä Oslossa ja toinen kesällä Stameriena linnassa Latviassa, joista molemmista todella nautin. Gifts from the Sentient Forest -hanke päättyi näyttelyyn Rovaniemellä, jossa olin viikon verran galleriavahtina ja viikonlopun mittaiseen vetäytymiseen Äkäslompolossa syksyllä. Ja minulla on ollut tilaisuus osallistua kolmeen konferenssiin, 16:ta SAR (Society for Artistic Research) konferenssi Portossa toukokuussa, IFTR (International Federation for Theatre Research) konferenssi Kölnissä kesäkuussa – jossa osallistuin excom (executive committee) kokoukseen viimeisen kerran koska kauteni päättyi nyt – ja lopuksi 30:teen PSi (Performance Studies international) konferenssiin Fortalezassa Brasiliassa joulukuussa, jossa nyt toimin hallituksessa yhtenä arkiston hoitajista.
Näyttelyiden ja näytösten suhteen tämä ei ole ollut merkittävä vuosi, vaikka pidinkin tavanomaisen yksityisnäyttelyni Harakan lennättimessä kesällä ja osallistuin yhteiseen Taiteilijoiden saari -näyttelyyn syksyllä. Ja minulla oli tietysti työ mukana myös Gifts from the Sentient Forest -näyttelyssä. Vanha teos oli esillä Pimento galleriassa Oulussa keväällä ja toinen vanha työ oli mukana Bioart society:n näytöksessä, mutta ei juuri paljoa muuta ylpeiltävää. Julkaisujen suhteen olen ollut tuotteliaampi, osaksi koska muutamat viivästyneet tesktit on nyt viimein julkaistu. Katso englanninkieliset luettelot tässä alla, viimeisimmät ylinnä.
Näyttelyt, tapahtumat ja esitykset vuonna 2025
“With the Juniper on Fredhäll Cliff” (performance response) in the Artistic Research Working Group of PSi (Performance Studies International) at the PSi #30 conference XXX – Cruzo, Cruising, Crossroads in Fortaleza, Brasil 11-15.12.2025.
Year of the Dog – Sitting in a Tree (2007) and Time with a Pine , video poster at Kuva Research Days, Academy of Fine Arts, Uniarts Helsinki 9-12.12.2025.
Shadow of a Pine – Remix in Artists’ Island exhibition on Harakka Island 10.-28.9.2025.
“More Pines – Lisää mäntyjä – Mera tallar” in the Telegraph Gallery on Harakka Island 12-17.8.2025 See also
Day with a Mountain Birch in Night of the Arts at SOLU space: To Notice is to Remember 14.8.2025.
With a Pine at Äkäslompolo in Gifts from the Sentient Forest – exhibitionin
Villa Vinkkeli, Rovaniemi 10.6.-1.8.2025
Day with a Mountain Birch in Bioart Society members’ screening 7.6. and online until 15.6.2025.
“FlowerPower” in the Impossible week peace agora exhibition on Harakka Island 22-25.5.2025.
With the Tarri Pine, Pimento gallery, Oulu, 22.1.-16.2.2025 See info in Finnish
Julkaisut vuonna 2025
“Duration through Repetition – Revisiting as Method”, HUB – Journal of Research in Art, Design and Society, 5 (2025) https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/2797281/2797282/0/0
“Walking in the Woods.” Global Performance Studies 7 (2) (2024). https://doi.org/10.33303/gpsv7n2a122
Arlander, Annette & Pilvi Porkola “Performance” in Karin Murris
“Sunnuntait männyn kanssa – performanssia ja performatiivista kirjoitusta” [Sundays with a Pine – performance and performative writing ] in Pilvi Porkola (ed.) Kirjeitä ja Meritähtiä: Näkökulmia performatiiviseen kirjoittamiseen [Letters and Starfish – Perspectives on Performative Writing] Nivel 22, pp. 57-73 https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-353-100-0
“Talking about sentience” as one of the testimonials on the Gift from the Sentient webpages https://www.sentientforestproject.com/annettearlander
“Liikkuvaa ja lähes liikkumatonta kuvaa mäntyjen kanssa: Miten kohdata puu subjektina?”. [Moving and almost immobile images with pines: How to encounter a tree as a subject?] Lähikuva – audiovisuaalisen kulttuurin tieteellinen julkaisu 38 (3) 2025:51-68. https://doi.org/10.23994/lk.173157
“Esityksestä julkaisuksi. Miten tehdä asioita esityksellä -tutkimushankkeen kokemuksia konferenssiesitysten julkaisemisesta” [From performance to publication] in Teo Kurki, Jari Martikainen, Tuija Saresma, Saara Jäntti ja Sari Pöyhönen (eds.) Taide tietämisen tapana. Nykykulttuurin tutkimuskeskuksen julkaisuja 137, Nykykulttuuri 2025.
“Pondering with Contorta Pines – Towards Post-humanist Approaches in Performance as Research”. Näyttämö ja Tutkimus [Stage and Research] Vol. 11 No 1 (2025), 11-32. See https://journal.fi/teats/article/view/145411
“Public and archivable” in Mika Elo and Maiju Loukola (eds/toim) In Line, online, off the grid / Linjassa, linjoilla, katveessa. Academy of Fine Arts, University of the Arts Helsinki 2025, 252-255.
“Pondering with Örö Pines: Talking with Trees as an Undisciplinary Method”. Plant Perspectives. 2025 https://doi.org/10.3197/WHPPP.63845494909748
“Trees as experts in Site-specificity” in Hunter, Victoria and Cathy Turner (eds.) Routledge Companion to Site-Specific Performance, London & New York: Routledge 2025, 318-328. See here
Alustukset, luennot, esittelyt ja muut tehtävät vuonna 2025
Joining Junipers at the Crossroads (presentation) in the Artistic Research Working Group of PSi (Performance Studies International) at the PSi #30 conference XXX – Cruzo, Cruising, Crossroads in Fortaleza, Brasil 11-15.12.2025.
Examining a performance by Karolin Poska, Estonian Academy of Arts 12-13.11.2025.
Lecture at Aalto doctoral school 6.11.2025.
Panelist in the online event “Plants, Memory, Belonging” organised by Oak Spring Garden & Plant Perspectives 8.10.2025 See poster PMB_2026_Final
“On creating podcast episodes” at the Sentient Forest retreat in Äkäslompolo 5-7.9.2025.
Presentation in Teo Kurki, Jari Martikainen, Tuija Saresma, Saara Jäntti ja Sari Pöyhönen (eds.) Taide tietämisen tapana. Publishing event (webinar) 27.8.2025.
Lecture and workshop at International Doctoral Summer School in Latvia 18-22.8.2025.
“Junipering” (response to Denise Ackerl’s Mermaiding) in the online gathering of the Artistic Research Working group of Psi (Performance studies international) 18.6.2025.
“How to do things with Pinecones: Carnivalizing the undisciplinary?” in the PAR (performance as research) working group at IFTR conference in Cologne 9.-13.6.2025.
“Documenting and Sharing” at seminar 2 of the Norwegian Artistic Research Program, Oslo 13-15.5.2025.
”Performing for a Pine – Resonance in Repetition” at SAR (Society for Artistic Research) conference on Resonance in Porto 8-9.5.2025.
Participating in the Kone Forest Dialogue conversation as part of the Gifts from the Sentient Forest project 2.4.2025
“Finding the Research Question in Speculative Creative Practice” conversation with Roy Hanney in the seminar series Research for Creative Media: Practice and Pedagogy (online) 12.2.2025 See recording
Jul
Ett lyckligt vintersolstånd och en fridfull jultid!
Yuletide
A happy winter solstice and a peaceful yuletide!
Joulua
Onnellista talvipäivänseisausta ja rauhallista joulunaikaa!
Elderflora
Some time ago I read an entertaining account of old trees, Elderflora: A Modern History of Ancient Trees by Jared Farmer. When I look back I don’t remember many details, except my impression that the book was very much focused on the US, which is understandable, or rather something I have learned to expect. The names of the chapters give an idea of the scope of the critically and entertainingly written book: Prologue, Introduction, Venerable Species, Memento Mori, Monuments of Nature, Pacific Fires, Circles and Lines, Oldest Known, Latest Oldest, Time to Mourn, Epilogue.
The first corner I have turned, on page 113, deals with German forest policy in the 19th century: “… the contradiction between forestry and forest-mindedness was partially resolved through the protection of “remarkable trees”, the inverse of “normal trees”. While the forest engineers segregated timber into age cohorts, they marked extraordinary specimens on their cadastral maps and placed stones around them – relicts to be preserved in the midst of rationalisation.” (Farmer 2022, 113) Farmer mentions that ‘remarkable’ first meant “freak forms of growth” but would soon come to mean “the biggest, the oldest, the most historic – trees associated with kings, or Luther, or Goethe, and ideally situated near spas and hiking paths.” (ibid.) This was of course interesting to think about after completing a two-year project called Meetings with Remarkable and Unremarkable Trees not that long ago.
There is much talk about dendrochronology, tree rings and the search for the oldest tree in the world, usually a pine, but I have turned my next corner only more than hundred pages later. That is because junipers, my current performing partners, are mentioned. “When piñons and junipers expire their deaths don’t attract the same media attention as do lone trees or tall trees.” Moreover: In Utah and other western US states, ranchers and land managers continue to ‘chain’ junipers – kill them by dragging a heavy anchor chain between two bulldozers – thus encouraging the growth of annual grasses grazed by beef cattle.” (Farmer 2022, 270)
A familiar name pops up a little later, namely Pando, the huge aspen forest, which is actually one cloned individual, “a forest of one”, near Fishlake plateau in Utah. It is a candidate for the largest organism in the world, and supposed to be 80.000 years old. And in the same context there is a brief account of the Swedish spruce clone, Old Tjikko, which I have visited myself in 2019 and thought to be 11.000 years old, standing there since the ice-age. Farmer notes that a professor at Umeå University named the ancient clone Old Tjikko after his beloved departed dog and mentions the finding of a 9.550 year old piece of wood on the site as the only rather insubstantial evidence. He also mentions a book by a brooklyn-based photographer Rachel Sussman, The Oldest Living Thing in the World (2014), new to me. (Farmer 2022, 290-293) Farmer notes that “it’s current high ranking in Google searches for the oldest living thing is less about botany than the never ending search for symbols. The latest oldest is a mobile site where the modern fetish for the new and the novel meets the modern fetish for the ancient and the original.” (Farmer 2022, 293)
Well, what other ways of being remarkable could make more sense?
Farmer, Jared (2022) Elderflora: A Modern History of Ancient Trees Picador 2022
Performing Landscape 