A kinaesthetic inter-species composition

If you want to learn about pines, you must learn from the pines. (Bashõ 1644-94)

Ikebana accepts the temporary nature of things and recognizes man’s place in the cycle of nature. The method of arranging the flowers indicates a change in time; man’s ability to face the present moment and future challenges. Where a tree species takes a thousand years to climb over a mountain, the human conception of time is at best a few hundred years. The performance is multi-species and features both plants and humans. The performance is thus also aimed at plants that can attend a performance for free with a paying human. How often do you take your favourite plants to the theatre?

The performance challenges the viewer to relinquish the requirement of being separate from the rest of nature and invites the experiencer to face otherness. Plants and dancers strive for a connection that unleashes the inner aesthetic forces in the plant through different states, postures and stills. In-depth knowledge of plants may be crucial to the continuity of humanity.

The sound design of the performance is created together with the plants by transforming plants' biological functions into human audibility. After the performance, the audience will have the opportunity to play the plants at the Fern Orchestra Plant Jam Session.

Income from the ticket sales of the performance is used to buy forest for preservation as a carbon sink. #everythingbutphotosynthesisisinvain

Working Group

Collaborators

Fern Orchestra, Regional Dance Centre of Western Finland and Turku City Theatre