Gifts from the Sentient Forest
10.6. - 1.8.2025
tue-fri 12-17 sat-sun 12-16
Julija Pociute; Caressing Hands video still
A collaborative, international, and interdisciplinary research project between the University of Lapland Arctic Centre, Finland, and the University of Notre Dame, Australia with support from the Kone Foundation, Finland, 'In the Woods' Funding Programme (2024 --2026)
Forests make life on Earth possible by nurturing biodiversity, regulating water quality, mitigating climate fluctuations, affording habitats for pollinators, and supplying food, fibre, medicine, shelter, well-being, and other forms of sustenance. As the global population surges past eight billion people, however, more and more of the planet’s natural resources are required to satisfy human needs at the expense of other life forms. Global deforestation and ecosystem degradation continue to accelerate, with an estimated four-hundred million hectares of forests converted to agricultural and other uses since 1990. Yet, apart from their ecological importance, old forests have aesthetic, cultural, emotional, and spiritual value because of the powerful capacities that reside within them and that can, through close observation, remind us of the origins of life on Earth. Forests are natural and cultural nexuses. Ancient trees in particular are connected to personal and collective histories and identities. As old forests disappear, the cultural heritage associated with them risks becoming extinct.
Project Coordinators are Dr Francis Joy and Dr John C. Ryan. Contributing artists include Annette Arlander, Evgenia Emets, Francis Joy, Satu Kalliokuusi, Zoë Koivu, Lydia Reuhkala, Milja Laine, Samin Lee, Dagmara Masłowska, Hekla Muotka, Mykyta Peregrym, Julija Pociūtė, John C. Ryan, Marjo-Riikka Stenius, and Mira Sunnari.
Read more about the project: https://www.sentientforestproject.com/
Please also come to the opening event on Tuesday 10th of June at 6 pm.
Mykyta Peregrym.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mykyta.peregrym
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ukrainian_botanist
Twitter/X: https://x.com/PeregrymM
Ukrainian, living in Oulu, Finland
I am a researcher with nearly 25 years of experience in studying plant diversity, with a focus on rare, endangered, and invasive species. My work also includes citizen science, biodiversity data collection, nature conservation, and herbarium management. Recently, I have begun sharing my research experience through non-fiction writing.
Francis Joy.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tulilaulu.firesong.7/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tulilaulu.firesong.7/
English, living in Rovaniemi, Finland.
Francis Joy is a Druid, poet, practitioner of shamanism and researcher. Since 2005, Francis has been living in Finland and since 2007, has published extensively on the Indigenous religion of the Sámi people past and present, including the study of ancient rock art. Francis is also well read on trees and folklore. For further information please visit: https://research.ulapland.fi/en/persons/francis-joy and https://druidman1962.wixsite.com/mysite
Annette Arlander.
Website: https://annettearlander.com,
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/annette.arlander.now/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100010421624629
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/annettearlander.bsky.social
Finnish, living in Helsinki
Performing landscape is the overall theme for my artistic practice, which is usually focused on vegetation, especially trees, and often involves site-specific work, performances for camera, recorded speech, video installations and various experiments concerning the environment, and which takes place in the border zone between performance art, media art and environmental art. Recent project: Pondering with Pines
Evgenia Emets.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/evgenia_emets
https://www.instagram.com/eternalforestglobal
Web:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eternalforestglobal
https://www.facebook.com/evgenia.emets/
Russian, living in Portugal
I am an international artist and poet and the Founder of the Eternal Forest Global project. I work with forest ecology and community creating visual art, films, artist’s books, forest trails and experiences, and large-scale ecological artworks in the form of forest sanctuaries.
Lydia Reuhkala.
Finnish living in Oulu, Finland.
Lydia Reuhkala is an academic who specialises in the study of literature for children and young people. She is currently working on a project on plants in CYA literature. (Her academic publications appear under the name ‘Lydia Kokkola’.) For the exhibition, she has written her own novel for children on this theme, which is available free of charge using the QR code.
Samin Lee.
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saminlee/
Korean, living in Tampere, Finland.
Samin’s Olfactory Dialogues explore the intersections of scent, memory, and environmental narrative. Through participatory smelling practices and site-specific dialogues, she examines how forests act as spaces of sensory memory and ecological knowledge. Her work engages with the forest not only as subject but as an active collaborator in the creation of meaning.
Dagmara Masłowska.
website: luomukoreo.art
Polish, living in Finland
I am an international artist and founder of Luomu Koreo / Organic Choreographies project. In my work I combine dance and ecosomatics, often beginning from slowness or stillness as a place of connection. I am interested in finding ways to create with or from the more-than-human.
Marjo Riikka Stenius.
web: www.marjoriikkastenius.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marjoriikkas/
Finnish, living in Oulu
Marjo-Riikka Stenius is a visual artist and field worker who bridges environmental conservation and artistic practice in Northern Finland. Through her interdisciplinary practice informed by her humanities background, Stenius explores human-nature relationships, emphasizing the importance of childlike wonder as essential for cultivating deeper connections with the natural world.
Mira Sunnari.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1BPPDcWrHA/
Finnish, living in Tornio, Finland.
I am a singer, composer and choir director who creates a world of sound with senses, emotions and intuition. Intuitive composing is my passion. I also guide others to the sources of sound and expression through song painting, choir directing and performance coaching.
Milja Laine
Web: www.miljalaine.com
Instagram:
instagram.com/pienikaupunkikasvio
Finnish, living in Helsinki.
I am a Helsinki based visual artist and illustrator with a background in ecology. Through drawing, writing, alternative photography and collage, I make poetic explorations in the multi-voiced biosphere, seeking to strengthen the threads of connection and care within the broader web of relations.
Hekla Muotka.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lapin.akka
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LapinAkka
Web: www.lumiloimu.fi
Finnish, living in Muonio.
I call myself and my artistic me a shamanic witch. My shamanic witch name is Lapin Akka/The Witch of Lapland. I make shamanic ritual performances. In my pagan rituals I use spells for the four elements: earth, air, fire and water. In the performance for The Gifts of the Sentient Forest I thank The Spirits of the elements in my spells for all the good and important things that nature, the forest, offers us. I ask The Spirits of these elements to show us mortal how our entire existence depends on the generosity of nature; fertile land, clean air to breathe, fire that warms and waters the elixir of life. We are part of nature, we have nature in us, we are a draft of nature.
Zoë Koivu
Web: www.pzk.fi
Instgram: https://www.instagram.com/pzkoivu/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/philippazoe.koivu
British, living in Rovaniemi, Finland
Through attuning on daily forest walks, she uses (i)photography to capture noticing’s of the flowing seasonal spiral. Combining attentiveness and curiosity, her colourful images resonate multilevel perspectives of forest Interbeing.
Julija Pociūtė.
Instgram: https://www.instagram.com/julija.pociute/
Facebook: https://www.julijapociute.com/
Lithuanian, living in Lithuania
Julija Pociūtė is an interdisciplinary artist known for her mixed media installations based on interaction between video art, sculpture, design elements and photography. Her last year’s artistic research is based on interest in various ways of experienced and inexperienced connection with nature and the inner self. A way to connect with nature and feel the layers of human and non-human reality, rethinking its relationships.
John Charles Ryan.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1BtVCSCoKr/
X/Twitter: https://x.com/jcryan22
American who has lived and worked long-term in Australia and Southeast Asia.
John Charles Ryan is an American writer of poetry, non-fiction, and research with a keen interest in plants, fungi, lichens, and human-nature relations. Between 2008 and 2021, he lived in Australia where he still serves as Associate Professor and Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at the Nulungu Institute, University of Notre Dame, Australia. For more information about his work, see www.johncharlesryan.com
Satu Kalliokuusi.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/satukalliokuusiart
Instgram: https://www.instagram.com/satukalliokuusiart
Web:
https://www.satukalliokuusi.fi
https://www.artakas.carbonmade.com
Finnish, living in Helsinki
Satu Kalliokuusi is an artist from Finland and her narratives begin from my Fenno-Ugrian roots and how it appears in my art and life. As a visual artist, Satu makes paintings, sculptures, installations, media works and environmental art with themes of her roots. Satu is mainly interested in the human psyche, human rights, and environmental ethics. Satu’s exhibitions often take stands for nature.