In Light of Plants at the Saari Residence

Bringing together six artists, writers, and curators from Finland, Germany, and UK, the “In Light of Plants” group residency at Saari aims to explore plant-human histories and relations. In our current moment, as we face multiple intertwined anthropogenic crises, including climate breakdown, habitat and species loss, disease and antibiotic resistance; with the knowledge of these challenges, how can we learn to look again at plants’ preciousness and value and recognise the vital link between vegetal life and human existence on this planet?

The nonhuman agency of plants is often twisted or diminished by anthropocentric histories; we often fail to see plants as living beings at all, visualizing the vegetal as inert matter. Through our residency, we hope to consider alternative ways of working, living, and thinking with plants.

Through workshops and shared dialogue, the group formed by Annette Arlander, Soko Hwang, Feral Practice, Egle Oddo, Sonya Schönberger and Anna Souter will seek to develop collaboration creative practices with the plant life found at the Saari Residence, crafting a series of nuanced and complex conversations about vegetal life. The six group members have different ways of working across practice and theory, but they share a deep engagement in expanded research entwining art, ecology, ethics, and politics. We hope the variety of our perspectives will gently open up new ideas and avenues of enquiry.