Book launch: The New Pangaea – Plant Journeys to Seili
14.6.2024
SOLU / Bioart Society
The launch event presented the new publication Uusi Pangaia – Kasvimatkoja Seilin saarelle (The New Pangaea – Plant Journeys to Seili) together with video and sound works from The New Pangaea series by Kalle Hamm and Band of Weeds.
The event also brought the work of Hamm and Band of Weeds into dialogue with the practice of artist and filmmaker Lotta Petronella, who shared some of her ongoing multifaceted body of work Själö Poeisis. These two long-term collaborative projects approach the naturalcultural history and present of Seili from a range of perspectives that unsettle anthropocentric and patriarchal narratives of the island and its biopolitical institutions.
The ongoing collaboration between artists and scientists at the Archipelago Research Institute (University of Turku) in Seili was discussed in the event by artists Kalle Hamm and Lotta Petronella together with marine biologist Prof Ilppo Vuorinen and archaeobotanist Dr Mia Lempiäinen-Avci, moderated by curator and researcher Taru Elfving.
The event was realized in collaboration with the Bioart Society at their SOLU space in Helsinki. It was a satellite event in the public programme of the exhibition At the Edges of Knowledge presented by CAA at the Archipelago Research Institute in Seili during the summer 2024 with the support of the Arts Promotion Centre Finland.
The book is part of a larger body of work The New Pangaea (2021-24) realized in collaboration with the Archipelago Research Institute and produced by CAA Contemporary Art Archipelago. It is the first publication in a series of books by CAA emerging out of the long-term interdisciplinary research residency programme on the island of Seili. The publication has been produced as part of the project Spectres in Change (2017-2024) by CAA with the support of the Kone Foundation, Oskar Öflund Foundation and the Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland. The publication is now available in print and online in Finnish. An English translation will follow soon.
The New Pangaea series will be completed with the release of the album The New Pangaea – Interspecies Cantata by Superpang Records in 2025.