Anna Siekierska

During the residency, I will continue to explore the practices of the Interspecies Society. Regardless of species affiliation, it is a grassroots movement of all individuals and collectives dedicated to rebuilding inter-species alliances and solidarity. All persons involved act as guides if they agree. As a participant, I’m responsible for co-creating the Society’s iconography. It includes portraits of members. For me, it means collecting the traces, following the guides, learning from and with other beings, and depicting our entangled relations. I know I will meet more companions in Saari.

My work is based on being attentive to the world. I work slowly and do not assume a result. My body and the other bodies I work with, the matter and the materials, lead the process along a winding path. Collaboration is very important to me. I learn it by observing relationships in nature with an awareness of their diversity. Mutual aid is intertwined with conflict, parallel paths may never meet, and seemingly distant routes become inextricably entangled.

In Saari, I met sheep who spent the warm season here. They are engaged in regenerative agriculture. Sheep have been our companion species for thousands of years, shaping the natural-cultural landscapes. Their wool holds environmental knowledge. It protects from cold and water. When people learned that, it allowed them to explore cold lands, high mountains, and windy oceans. I plan to create objects in sheep’s wool referring to covers – different stories of shelter, wrapping, care and sabotage. I am fascinated by woodworking and will definitely combine wool forms with wooden structures. I’m learning this craft from my engineering masters – the beavers.

I’m happy to assist in the autumn migration of animals: birds, snakes, and sheep. Making kin with other beings is essential to my manual practice and writing. I’ll focus on my PhD thesis, which is about the Interspecies Society. I am very interested in exchanges with other artists through discussions, having fun, and going to the sauna. I also expect to be immersed in nature, including the sea—I love swimming in cold waters and picking mushrooms and berries.

Anna Siekierska is a sculptor, cyclist, academic, and activist committed to ancient forests. Anna is a co-author of numerous installations in public spaces, socially engaged projects, and activities that raise awareness of the lives of other beings. Centered around the complex network of relationships between people and the more-than-human world. She spends a lot of time in various thickets and swamps