Lauri Linna was selected for the two-week long Rewilding Cultures residency via an open call in 2023. During his residency, Lauri Linna will study the wind and its life, observing the arctic atmosphere.
A whistle is heard from afar. The wind is strong, it can destroy and gather. The wind carries smells, sounds, acid rain, the last breath of the deceased and chemical conversations of plants. Biology of the atmosphere; microbes, seeds, spores, insects and birds. I'm sitting on a plane. I am now part of the biology of the higher troposphere. Inside the plane's septic tank a human poop shoot across the sky at the speed of 860 km/h. In the cargo hold, decorative plants from Dutch greenhouses travel to Arctic supermarkets. The atmosphere in a room shows dangerous levels of CO2. I feel dizzy.
Lauri Linna's work focuses on gardening, plants and wilderness. In 2016, he started PORK KANA CAR ROT, a project focusing on methods of selective breeding and the reproductive rights of economic plants. "Keyboard for Plants" (2018-) is a set of sensors that mimosas can activate through their leaves movements. Since 2021, Linna has been assembling a plant gene bank from Juomasuo, a possible future battery mineral mine site. Linna has a master's degree from Aalto University's ViCCA program.
Rewilding Cultures is a Creative Europe collaboration project aiming to reposition the wild within the field of art practices connecting to science and technology. As the European cultural sector has been and still is affected by multiple subsequent and coincident crises (incl. COVID-19, war-induced inflation, migration) we need to rewild on terms fit for the present and future.
The partner associations include ART2M / Makery (FR), Bioart Society (FI), Catch (Helsingør Kommune) Center for Art, Technology and Design (DK), Cultivamos Cultura (PT), Ionian University (GR), Radiona (HR) Schmiede Hallein (AT) and Projekt Atol (SI) which leads the project. Rewilding Cultures is co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union, which aims to support European projects in the field of cultural production and innovation.
In 2022, the duo Marta Moreno Muñoz and Oscar Martín were chosen to participate in the Rewilding Cultures residency. They both wrote about their experiences of the residency on the Bioart Society website; you can read the blog entry by Marta Moreno Muñoz here and the blog entry by Oscar Martín here.
For the latest news relating to the project, please check the Rewilding Cultures website.