The interspecies affair in a forest of bamboozle, an ecological tale about synchronicity and how to save the world. A docufiction film and graphic novel

Hakemuksen tiivistelmä

I would like to continue and expand a global art project which originated a few months ago during my residency at The Institute for Provocation located in Beijing, China. My ongoing project has to do with an inexplicable desire and relationship with a plant species of bamboo. This fictional interspecies affair jump started my collaborative research into ecological-fiction, global space programs and public performances with communities living deep in nature. How I became one with bamboo? This summer in a traditional Chinese mountain village in Anhui province I collaborated with local inhabitants performing a ritualistic launching of a bamboo rocket. Through video I documented the stories and lives of people living in close proximity to the vast bamboo forests. It’s the main resource for their entire existence. This species represents all the inspirational qualities of what an empathic human being could be. An environmental superhero. Within the framework and speculative ideas of docu-fiction I would like to create a film, exhibition and reimagined graphic novel within the Ecological-fiction genre. I also will create workshops and performances on how to become a superhero bamboo species exploring their inspirational, mysterious and sustainable properties. I will be researching and collaborating with Ähtäri Zoo, ProAgria who is currently cultivate overwintering bamboo species in Finland, The Botanical Garden in Finland and The Finnish Astronautical Society.

Bamboocene: Memories of Synchronicity is a multidisciplinary project that took the form of exhibitions, drawings, graphic novel, feature length documentary and an interactive online exhibition created by a Monstersweet duo ( Monika Czyzyk and Torsten Zenas Burns ). The project has been built around ecological - speculative - fictions. In the form of hybrid, eclectic narrations it has been merging various storylines, worlds, cultures, politics, documentary footage with CGI animations, and sequential storytelling into non linear narrations.

Within the project we produced:
Bamboocene ( I want to build a rocket ) 78m min, 4k video, colour, stereo, 2021
The Bamboonaut Clusters, Thirty original pencil drawings, A4 size.
The Bamboonaut Clusters, 104 page graphic novel.
Bamboonaut 1&2, Two 240 page catalogs.
Exhibitions including sculptural and video installations, drawing series, and publishing projects presented at Myymala 2 gallery in Finland and / Stroboskop Art Space in Poland.
Bamboocene: Memories Of Synchronicity part 3 WebGL, interactive website built in WebGl.
The Bamboonaut Clusters, 30 page comic book will be presented and distributed by Random Man publishing / USA in 2022.