What are our possibilities to sense and inhabit plant temporalities? What creative frictions might arise when we approach the limits of the temporal dimensions accessible to our bodies and imaginations? How might collectively attuning to more-than-human temporalities nourish the possibilities of re-imagining our relationships with the worlds that nourish us?
A sensory walk as an invitation to connect to plant time. Weaving together Linda’s fieldwork movement practice with the marsh since 2020 and our earlier work with voicing, movement and walking methodologies.
2024, to be continued in 2025. Photos: Marine Gastineau
a sensory walk in Utterslev Marsh. In collaboration with Linda Lapiņa.
listening for meadow times
“I felt peaceful, dreamy, silent, tired. I found a red leaf, a silver shiny dry flower, warm summer breeze, wind in the trees, moment with myself, nature and others calm & alive. Thank you for letting us tune in and for this walk. Thank you meadow for this lovely spot. ”
audience reflections
“Thank you. Just what I needed. A guided pause to connect to inner calm through connecting to nature. ”
“All of the snails are sleeping in their shells. And the shells are hanging on thin leaves. And the thin leaves are singing in the winds. And I wonder where is their house?”
“In worlds where the core tenets of modernity pull us into realms of separation and disconnection, engaging with plants can be a radical act of rekindling a forgotten dialogue. .
An invitation walk beyond the idea of human exceptionalism and towards acknowledging and honouring the intrinsic value of the myriad life forms that we share this planet with. To remember how our existance is and always has been intertwined.
Our earliest memories with plants often sprout from the seeds of curiosity and wonder, blossoming into stories of exploration, play, and learning. Whether it was sharing our secrets to the forest, working the gardens with parents or grandparents, or sensing the gentle touch of grass underfoot while engaged in play, these memories root us into the earth, grounding our being in the rest of the living world.
As you step into this meadow and follow the roped path, you are invited to become not merely an observer but a participant in a timeless dialogue between humanity and the rest of the living world. To slow down, to explore, to remember, to share. To unearth your knowing of other stories and connections possible.”
work in progress, developed during BIRCA Baltic Sea Residency in Bornholm, 2023
an audio-visual-sensorial installation in a meadow with a live sounding performance
unearthing
“thank you for slowing down the anxiety and taking care of me/us in the meadow. I feel calm, a little goosebumpy and smelling like a meadow”
audience reflections
“I am leaving full of plants desires and desires of singing with the plants. thank you.”
“thank you for the reminder of the infinite space of beauty that nature is - it is also within me. vibrations by millions of sensing beings in and around me.”
hear some of peoples earliest memories of interacting with plants and trees shared as part of this project.
What do plants dream about? What does you inner plant try to communicate to you? What becomes possible when we learn to hear that?
This is an invitation to step into the plant world. Meet the plants on their terms and in their time. Open to imagination and sense of being part of the web of life. Sense yourself as humanplant.
An experience that invites a possibility of closeness that leaves you sensing otherwise.
Images from a version in Rucka Art Residency, Latvia and one in Aarhus, Denmark as part of SPAF festival, 2023. Edition in Latvia co-created with Tīna Alise Drupa
participatory performance that invites to step into a deeper connection with plants
following yarrow
audience reflections
“Thank you for building a bridge between the small and the big, between us and nature, remembering that this bridge is already one big illusion.”
“Thank you for the serenity and gentleness of this. Thank you and the plants. Thank you to the rain. It was precious to stop and see how we are part of it all. It is valuable to get a little beyond ourselves and share intimacy with others. To touch, to create, to smell, to observe is how we might like to be. ”
“I loved being outside in the rain, sitting on the ground and enjoying the raindrops falling. Talking to the plants reminded me of the importance of addressing what ails and throbs. ”
“Step by step, together, we return to what is important, essential, creative, peaceful. I really liked this multi-sensory approach.”
“Simple is very beautiful.
And it touched me very deeply your singing.”
murmuring through. silence came in pulsing ripples
ceremony and sound journey to come into deeper connection with plants. co-created with Agnieszka Bułacik during artist residence at Earthwise, Denmark, 2023
Performers: Agnieszka Bułacik, Vivian Vesterager, Edda Karólína Ævarsdóttir, Liene Jurgelāne
a performance ceremony exploring plant-human relationships as partnerships for building more livable worlds.
Working with sounds, echoes of Eastern European folksongs, murmurs and spoken word, the ceremony is an invitation to enter the space in-between and to build deeper relationships with plants. All this with an underlying intention to heal the wound of separation between humans and the rest of the natural world and imagine and co-create worlds more livable to all.
A site-adapted participatory intervention to challenge and re-imagine the western notion of a cemetery.
Why are the rituals, spaces and artefacts of a cemetery the way they are, and how might they be re-imagined? How might a cemetery look different? What does an experience of remembrance consist of? What is analog, what is digital, what is in-between?
In Future Cemeteries, the physical space is re-imagined to emphasise personal reflection and feeling, together or individually:
minimal built structures create reflection spaces, entered by a meditation path.
a making corner allows for visitors to write or create artefacts inspired by their reflections, for themselves or in honour of their loved one
the headstone is re-imagined as a living, democratised space rather than a static personalised marker for each deceased. Digital screens show content submitted by loved ones, both local and remote
participatory installation re-imagining the experiences, space, and artefacts of a cemetery. co-created with Lindsay Tingstrom and Ints Ivanovskis, 2018
future cemeteries
f(un)eral
It’s difficult to think about death without eliciting a complex emotional response. f(un)eral is a participatory experience modelled loosely on the western archetype of a funeral and designed to stimulate dialogue surrounding the topic of death.
Those in attendance are invited to take part in a variety of ways from simply observing, to participating in the writing of a personal eulogy, which a then eventually be read aloud to the audience as its author lies in a coffin. This performance piece is created as a space for individuals and communities to reflect, feel and connect around the topic of death and explore it in the presence of sharp contrasts.
f(un)eral is an interdisciplinary work, combining audiovisual, performative and ritual elements.
Presented in Riga, Stockholm, and Berlin, 2016 - 2018
participatory performance and audio-visual installation exploring death and its meanings. Co-created with Lindsay Tingstrom and Ints Ivanovskis
“When message is so pure, it hits you straight in heart. I got a once in a lifetime opportunity to realise how sad it is to lose friends without actually losing them.”
audience reflections
“I walked into the f(un)eral slightly skeptical. I sat down, started observing and thinking of the task (my eulogy), yet my mind was elsewhere ....slowly I transformed.... whilst thinking of my funeral, I had received the much needed space to reflect on my life values. Worries about work was replaced with: What is real? What is important to me? What have I disregarded living this routine? If I carry on like this, will anyone even show up to my funeral? This realizing what routine does to ones’ soul, that made it special. Thank you for that special hour or slowing down enough to realize that.”