The Meadow
Onoma Summer Exhibition 2020, curated by Taru Elfving, Fiskars Village
Copper Smithy, Fiskars
18.6.-30.8.2020
Open daily 11am-6pm
The exhibition Meadow sets out to address the planetary ecological urgencies through a dialogue between contemporary art, craft, design and environmental research.
In the meadow, the slow evolution of the distinctive local ecosystem meets the accelerating planetary changes in all their unpredictability. In the meadow, the cycles of life and death of different species are entangled with the transformations of human cultures and technologies. The time of the meadow is not solely that of the past, even though Finnish meadow ecosystems of today mainly survive due to conservation efforts. Rather, the meadow intertwines the diverse rhythms of change: the geological deep time, the acute decrease in biodiversity, the myriad natural-cultural histories of symbiotic relations between humans and other animals, plants, microbes, and minerals.
With its roots deep in the meadow, the summer exhibition 2020 in Fiskars invites its artists and audiences, locals and visitors alike, to attune their senses in the village environment. It focuses attention on the sustainability of everyday practices and values, while envisioning alternative paths towards the future. Like the meadow, the exhibition insists on the necessity of taking time to care, even in the face of the escalating emergency of climate crisis.
In the Fiskars region, the ecosystem has been significantly impacted by the developments of agriculture, forestry, mining and related industries already for centuries. Conversely, specific ways of life have been flourishing here thanks to the local natural resources, such as iron ore and copper deposits, rich soil, vast forests and labyrinthine waterways. The local culture has also been shaped by close connections to the wider Baltic Sea region and beyond through migration and trade.
Starting from these local coordinates, the exhibition Meadow sets out to address the planetary ecological urgencies through a dialogue between contemporary art, craft, design and environmental research. The exhibition takes place both in the Copper Smithy, the permanent exhibition venue, and as site-specific interventions in and around Fiskars Village, accompanied by a multidisciplinary public programme. Its production has been guided by the commitment to develop ecologically and socially sustainable exhibition practices.