Annette Arlander

At the Edge of Disciplinary Conventions - Asking Trees for Advice

Artists have the possibility, some would say duty, to explore uncommon and even problematic ideas and to propose conceptual gestures that expand our understanding of what is sensible – or reasonable. What if we expand the notion of the social to include non-human or more-than-human beings such as trees? Or extend the format for an artwork beyond the art world to social or other media, like podcasts? Could approaching trees as teachers or other related gestures be used also in the context of education? In this talk I will describe my experiences in and show some excerpts of the three-lingual artistic research project Pondering with Pines(2022-2024), the informal sequel Joining Junipers (2025) and the podcast Talking with Trees.

Pondering with Pines https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/1323410/1589526

Joining Junipers https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/3310043/3310044

Talking with Trees https://soundcloud.com/user-90370389

Annette Arlander, DA, is an artist, researcher, and pedagogue, one of the pioneers of Finnish performance art (1980s) and trailblazers of artistic research (1990s). She was professor of performance art and theory at Theatre Academy Helsinki, professor of artistic research at University of the Arts Helsinki and professor in performance, art and theory at Stockholm University of the Arts. She received the AVEK Media Art Prize in 2014, and the Finnish State Prize for Multidisciplinary art in 2018. Her research interests include artistic research, performance-as-research, and the environment. Her artwork moves between performance art, media art and environmental art. For details, see

https://annettearlander.com

Foto: Minna Hatinen