Think like a forest – Integrating art, science and activism in a time of climate crisis

Text by Marianne Santala

The action is on.

Our pre-exercise for the camp was to choose the best action around any issue. Here we were divided into groups and we told the chosen actions as stories to the other group members. Then every group picked one action and performed it to the other groups. The extra challenge was to present the action without  saying any words. We were allowed to use any material that was available on the island.

We made performances of five different actions, which handled  social and ecological  issues in our society.

Sompasauna is a sauna located in Kalasatama, Helsinki. It was built on a wasteland of a former harbor by a couple of men who had found an abandoned stove. It is made mostly of construction waste and was the first public mixed sauna in Helsinki.

In 2017, Sami activists occupied an island in the Tenojoki or Tana river region straddling the border between Norway and Finland.  The purpose was to protest against new rules which restrict the traditional Sami  fishing technique. They also declared a  moratorium on the fishing regulations.

Residents of Brussels had a picnic to reclaim the streets in 2012. There were at least 2000 residents having picnic in one of the central avenues of Brussels, and demanding more room for pedestrians and cyclists. Later on Brussels has reduced places downtown where cars are allowed.

#MeeToo is an international movement against sexual harassment  and assault. The hashtag started to spread virally in 2017 and it’s meant to reveal the extent of the problem as well as stand in solidarity to those who have been hurt. The movement has aroused public discussion around the topic in global scale.

Tilted arc by Richard Serra was a public art installation displayed in Manhattan from 1981 to 1989. The sculpture consisted of unfinished rust-covered COR-TEN steel plate placed in the Federal Plaza. According to Serra, the purpose was to make the viewer become aware of himself and of his movement through the plaza. It was finally removed because it gained so much critic, since people working in the area found it ugly and disruptive to daily routines.

After performances we made conclusions by collectively creating a mind map around the actions through discussion.

Text and photos by Havu Pellikka

Dear readers,

Over the upcoming week, this blog will follow the activities of a bunch of people on a small uninhabited island, coming together to work on a pressing issue: tackling the climate crisis.

Each individual will bring to the island their personal skills and perspectives of our common world. We are a group of 20 artists, activists, researchers, and university students representing various disciplines: forestry, dance, meteorology, acting, dramaturgy, geophysics, light and sound design, and aerosol physics.

The work on the island will start from the very basics, covering the fundamental needs of food and shelter in our tent camp. There will be visiting lecturers and teachers, discussions, bat observing, and preparing the grand finale of the course, the Performance Action. What will be the outcome we do not yet know, but you can come and find out on May 26th, when the camp will be opened for visitors.

The camp will be located in Vallisaari, Helsinki, Finland, a former military island just a stone’s throw from the Suomenlinna UNESCO World Heritage Site. For a long time, Vallisaari (“Embankment Island”) provided fresh drinking water for sailors, supplies such as grazing land and firewood for the neighbouring Suomenlinna sea fortress, and acted as a base for pilots. Later on, under the Russian rule of the 19th century, fortifications were extended to Vallisaari itself.

In the 20th century, Vallisaari continued to serve the military as a storage area of weapons and ammunition. The human life on the island flourished around the mid-century, when it was home to some 300 people, a small rural community having its own school, shop, and cultural life, in addition to gardens and animals.

After the human settlement slowly disappeared, nature has been taking over the fortifications and other human traces on the island. The Finnish Defence Forces gave up the island in 2008 and it was opened to the public in 2016. Vallisaari boasts rich nature, having the highest diversity of species in all of Helsinki archipelago. This diversity is partly a consequence of human presence on the island, the meadows and other cultural landscapes as well as fortifications and caves providing many different habitats for life to thrive.

For 9 days, our group will be part of the web of life on the island, studying our place and role in the world where the human species keeps violating the planetary boundaries and ecosystems are crumbling as a result.

Welcome to follow our adventure!