At Kosminen-gallery Helsinki September 2020. Group exhibition with Oona Leinovirtanen and Lilli Haapala studies the relational ontologies from the point of view of microbes: mouths and salivas are mediators, bodies embed, and the agency of bacteria comes to the fore. We think of matters that are disposables for human animals but platforms for others. We too are the multiplicity of earth others; foamy and moist worlds that produce soil, live in it, feed from it, think with it. Our show was a situated practice of permaculture involution. We curated also performance artists and scholars to create a world to think with microbes. We wanted to bring scientist and scholars to offer the newest thoughts that help to question western anthropocentric thought. To envelope the thinking in material process we offered cucumber fermentation and performances. Program is found here:
Oona Leinovirtanen created the atmosphere of weird forest in to our show. The work is titled 'Mahakompostin liepeillä' (Around tummy compost). We left all the endings of carrots and peaches in the space to bind our work in circulating matters. The matters of our work was as chaotic as life. Our show turned gallery in to intestine. It was a Body without Organs. Material process of a holobiont. A one month digestion of food, ideas and colliding with microbes. We wanted to bring focus to probiotic turn that has declined in the abyss of Korona virus. We strive to think beyond pathogens. The smell of dried Kombutsa scoby and leaves we collected from the way created a nice stay for a fly who lived in Kosminen the whole month. Images by Liina Aalto-Setälä
Lilli Haapalas work 'Beneath the purple waters' with foam creating water pump was kind of the stomach of our show. It wasn't connected to other works, organs, but kept on circulating. The concepts of BwO in the hands of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari also means that organisms are not systems that repeat a function, but they are free to change their connections, connect and disconnect. Beyond representation this fountain celebrated waters that all bodies are made out of, moist that carry life. Soap is also the biosecurity that keeps bodies a part, and in another sense this work could be seen as a metaphor for isolated individual, who keeps on washing itself away from others. Image by Liina Aalto-Setälä
My work 'We give a s**t: multi species faeces' with the output of my companion animals is a result of turning my attention towards the ever changing matters of permaculture gardening. When not feeling like solving aesthetic problems I look for little sculptures made by guts of different animals. I wanted to bring peacock, worm, bunny, chicken and goat faeces in to a valuable exposure. On a bed where usually jewellery or diamonds are placed. Fertilating soil is pretty important and we all tried to use materials that can be further composed around gardens. Images by Liina Aalto-Setälä
