The Culture Trail Saari ResidenceFor residency applicants Working at the Saari Residence Saari Residence in Mynämäki, Finland Who can apply? What we offer Accommodation and workspaces Instructions for the online grant service Evaluation and decisions Frequently asked questions For Saari residents Accepting the residency and arriving at the Saari Residence Use of the residency grant and rescheduling Payment of residency grants Living and working at the Saari Residence Taxation and grant certificate Residency programmes The Saari Well Residency report Communication and social media Mentioning Kone Foundation and Saari Residence and the logos Saari Alumni Previous Residency Artists The Culture Trail Ecologically sustainable residency Community artist The Saari Invited Artist Residencies Reflected About Saari Residence History of Saari Manor Saari Residence Summer Well Saari Residence co-operation The Advisory Board of the Saari Residence Saari Residence staff The Culture Trail between the Saari Residence and Mietoinen bay is maintained collaboratively within the project Mietoistenlahti – Experiences in Nature for Everyone by Saari Residence for artists and the Association for Nature Conservation in Mynämäki Region. This recreational route is almost half a kilometre long and displays contemporary art. The exhibition is open for everyone year-round. Culture Trail exhibition Getting there Accessibility Partners Back to the top Culture Trail exhibition 2026–2027 From May 2026, new works by residency artists are on display along the Culture Trail near the Saari Residence. On the Culture Trail, visitors can see Salli Kari’s The Residency Box, reflecting on artists’ connection with the community, and Tianjun Li’s Anonymous Tides, merging local sounds with glacial images to bridge place and time. Both works result from the artists’ dialogue with Saari Residence’s unique setting. Photo: Juss Virkkumaa Salli KariThe Residency Box (2026) The Residency Box takes inspiration from the nest boxes on the grounds and Kone Foundation’s efforts to nurture biodiversity on the manor area. Kari aims to spark a playful dialogue between the local audience and the artists at the Saari Residence: artists, after all, are much like migratory birds: a visiting species that leaves its mark on the environment through its works and its presence. The artist also highlights the significant “safeguarding of art” that foundations do, providing invaluable safe havens for creative work in these uncertain times.The Residency Box is built around a former research booth, linking it to Saari Manor’s history as the Southwest Finland Research Station of the Agricultural Research Centre of Finland. Within the shelter of the hut, new ideas can now hide away and peek out through mirrors and skylights until they are ready to take flight into the world as new works of art. Photo: Jussi Virkkumaa Tianjun LiAnonymous Tides (2026 – Ongoing) Anonymous Tides is a site-specific installation made for the Saari Residence’s Culture Trail. Suspended within the terrestrial forest, photographic fabric displays images of glaciers and oceanic light refractions in Greenland, visually overlaid with data speckles generated from field recordings at Saari Residence. The fabric pairs with an evolving soundscape accessed via an NFC-embedded marker. The auditory interface layers the artist’s chanted recompositions of Virginia Woolf’s texts with continuous environmental field recordings contributed by visitors over time. You are welcome to record sounds at the Culture Trail and upload them to become a part of the Anonymous Tides. The work operates as a geological microcosm to examine ecological impermanence and the fluidity of planetary time. The Saari terrain, shaped by post-glacial land uplift from sea to forest, encounters a direct material counterforce through the visual presence of melting Greenlandic ice, foreshadowing a timeline where the woodland may inevitably return to water. Translating deep-time glacial shifts, cyclical tidal refractions, and present-moment acoustic frequencies into a singular spatial experience, the work reveals the land as an entity in constant flux. It functions as a study of the “Anonymous”: the vast, non-human rhythms dictating existence far beyond the scale of human intervention. Photo: Jussi Virkkumaa Getting there The Culture Trail’s address is Saarenrantatie 21, 23140 Hietamäki. From the crossroads leading to the manor, walk on for about 50 metres, and the Culture Trail is on the right side of the road. Alternatively, the Trail is accessible from the parking lot of the birdwatching towers at Saarentie 230, 23140 Hietamäki. Parking spaces are available in the parking area leading to the bird observation tower, located along Saarentie, and next to the Sillankari bird observation tower along Saarenrantatie. Visitors on the Culture Trail are kindly requested to avoid moving around in the manor area to ensure peace and quiet for everyone working and residing in the Residence. Accessibility The Culture Trail is accessible by car. There are parking spaces along Saarentie in the car park leading to the birdwatching tower, as well as close to the Sillankari birdwatching tower along Saarenrantatie. The Culture Trail is a gravelled path about 500 metres long. There are level differences along the trail which means that the trail is not accessible independently, for example by wheelchair. Partners We have partnered with the Mynämäki Region Nature Conservation Association in the upkeep of the Culture Trail.