Photo: Ulla Taipale
The multidisciplinary research conducted in Hyytiälä, offer a complicated, challenging, but inspiring basis also for artistic research. The first artist-in-residence under the Climate Whirl concept was organised at the Forest Station in 2013. Currently we have no open call for artists, but we encourage anyone interested in working at the Hyytiälä Forest Station with climate, forest ecology, peatlands and atmospheric phenomenon, or other topics related with boreal forest and atmosphere, to contact Ulla Taipale, the curator of the art programme.
The basic idea of Climate Whirl artist-in-residence program is that an artist and a researcher can work as equals at the station. The aim is, that the same instrumentation and knowledge is available for the researchers and the artists. The work can be carried out at SMEAR II research stations (SMEAR= Station for Measuring Ecosystem-Athmospheric Relations), located in the forest, peatland and a lake, nearby the Hyytiälä Forest Station in Hyytiälä, Juupajoki, Southern Finland.
The residencies are facilitated by art curator Ulla Taipale, who was invited to develop the Climate Whirl artist-in-residency and other activities by the initiator of the project, Dr. Eija Juurola in 2012. In her curatorial work, Taipale combines natural and artistic research. Since 2006, she has collaborated with Finnish research stations and worked in several other art&science initiatives internationally.
To start with the art program in 2012, project proposals from Finnish and international artists working in the intersection between arts and sciences were asked. Internationally awarded German artist Agnes-Meyer Brandis was selected as the first residency artist in 2013.
Climate Whirl artist-in-residence has got positive feedback from the people: scientists and and other professionals working at Hyytiälä. The residency has opened up new questions, and catalyzed wider perspectives to the top-level research conducted at the station.
Climate Whirl does not currently organise open calls for artists, but we encourage anyone interested in working with climate, forest ecology, peatlands and atmospheric phenomenon, or other topics related with boreal forest and atmosphere, to contact Ulla Taipale, the curator of the art programme. Email: ulla.taipale@helsinki.fi
The works of Agnes Meyer-Brandis are characterized by multidisciplinary explorations, that are often inspired by natural phenomena and natural research. She has studied the formation water droplets in zero-gravity flights (at German Space Agency), migrated with mysterious Moon Geese and designed an equipment that creates clouds. In her work, artistic, scientific, and technological research are often combined with fantastic elements.
The residency in Hyytiälä started in August 2013. It was carried out in two parts. In the later part, the Tealemetree*-workshop was organized. International group of thirteen artists and researchers took part to in the workshop.
Meyer-Brandis began her stay at the station with getting acquainted with the staff and the other researchers working at Hyytiälä. In order to meet people in the research forest, she built a table, that formed a meeting point and a place for tea breaks between the scientists, Agnes and a tree; Have a Tea with Me and a Tree.
Tealemetree Station was inaugurated as a permanent public art work in 2015. The table is documented by a webcam. The archive of the images can be browsed here.
*Tealemetree
Tea = a traditional beverage made from steeping the processed leaves, buds in water.
Telemetry = The word is derived from Greek roots: tele = remote, and metron = measure.
Tree = There is no universally recognised precise definition of what a tree is, neither botanically nor in common language.)
The official opening of the Tealemetree Station was celebrated during the 20th anniversary of SMEAR II station, in August 2015.
Photo: Ulla Taipale
The residency of Agnes Meyer-Brandis also resulted an installation work Teacup Tools. The work got a Mention of Honor at Hybrid Art category at Prixars competition at Ars Elektronica festival in spring 2015. So far, the work has been exhibited at Tieranatomisches Theater in Berlin, Ars Electronic festival in Linz, Austria, El Centro de Arte Laboral in Gijón, Spain, and in many measurement stations in Basel, Switzerland.