The conference lasted for five days (from October 20 to 24, closure day) during which there was an exchange of experiences and points of view with the aim of strengthening and cross-linking networks working on the relationship between culture, territory and society.
200 participants, 35 experts and speakers, and 5 institutions took part in the 5-day conference.
It provided a space for reflection and transmission of information: the status of the rural question, recent theoretical research on art and landscape and the practice of contemporary artistic interventions in relation to the rural… by incorporating different disciplines such as rural sociology, social psychology, eco-design, demography, agricultural policy theory, etc. We will also have the testimonies of people from the countryside, as valuable as any other well-established knowledge. The presentations will be expanded through round-table meetings to encourage public participation, as well as specific working groups. The target audience will be diverse but with a common interest in exploring this new area of thought and action: artists and art students, cultural agents, curators and art critics, professors of various disciplines, rural sociologists, rural development workers, politicians, etc.
The Campo Adentro International Conference was organized in collaboration with the Museo de Arte Reina Sofia, where it took place for the most part. At the same time, various activities took place in other venues at different cultural institutions around the city. You can find more detailed information in the program, downloadable in pdf.
Kultivator residency in Rum 46 Århus, Denmark
18th of October until 31st of October 2010
Most authorities consider that cheese was first made in the Middle East. The earliest type was a form of sour milk which came into being when it was discovered that domesticated animals could be milked. A legendary story has it that cheese was ‘discovered’ by an unknown Arab nomad. He is said to have filled a saddlebag with milk to sustain him on a journey across the desert by horse. After several hours riding he stopped to quench his thirst, only to find that the milk had separated into a pale watery liquid and solid white lumps. Because the saddlebag, which was made from the stomach of a young animal, contained a coagulating enzyme known as rennin, the milk had been effectively separated into curds and whey by the combination of the rennin, the hot sun and the galloping motions of the horse. The nomad, unconcerned with technical details, found the whey drinkable and the curds edible. Widcome, Richard. The Cheese Book. Seacaucus: Chartwell Books, 1978.
Making a Crosscultural Nomadic Cheese with Swedish/Danish culture, ripening into the meeting with our friends from the middle east.
Plan:
Kultivator will travel to Århus with milk from the farm.
15 – 18 October 2010
The milk comes from Kultivators farm and straight from the cows with no pasteurizing, which means that the culture of the farms surrounding is still in this milk. This bacteria micro culture and the conditions of the travel (heat from car engine, time (estimated 7 hours) and shaking from driving) will start the transformation of the milk into cheese. In the gallery Rum 46 in Denmark the cheese mass will be infused with danish culture, creating the Crosscultural Nomadic Cheese.
Kultivator arrives 15 of October, and will work on salting, pressing and shaping the CNC in the galleryspace until the 18:th of October. A workshop/Drawing session will be held in connection with this. The CNC will ripe in the gallery until end October, and then be be tasted. Parts of it would then be preserved until next year June, when Camp project starts, and possibly parts of this cheese could infuse milk brought from the middle east.
Workshop: Visualize your nomadic life (appr. 2 hours, Saturday or Sunday)
Drawing session with public. Drawings will be left exhibited in gallery during the ripening period of the Crosscultural Nomadic Cheese.
Suggestion for duration of exhibition is two – three weeks, after which the cheese should be ready for consuming. After this an event could be for public to taste the Crosscultural Nomadic Cheese in the end of October/begin November?
A building on further connecting over to the Camp in 2011, would be the traveling of milk from the middle east, via the gallery in Århus to the farm of Kultivator?
The International Gallery18 September – 2 October
Liverpool Biennial 2010
Curated by James Brady and Janette Porter (http://www.hightideuk.org/)
Ditch it
Environmental activism by play, art, and small and large animals, coordinated by Swedish art and agriculture initiative Kultivator.
Kultivator is located on a flat limestone island that lacks natural rivers. Instead, there are man made ditches, that already since century’s are leading water away from the island to the sea, to create more ground for cultivation and pastures. This has resulted in more land for people to feed on, but is also causing serious problems in the Baltic sea. The ditches carry the water quickly out, bringing with it nutrients leaking out from fertilized fields. This overfeeding of the sea results in an overproduction of algae, and dying seabeds due to lack of oxygen.
Already since years, commercial fishing outside the coast of the island has ceased, and the beaches clog of rotting or poisonous algae, making it hard to play in the shallow water. In the inland the plants and animals living in small freshwater pools and swamps has less and less space to live and breed. The process is a matter of both time and space. If the fresh water is contained and stays on the island longer, microorganisms and larger animals and plants can process the nutrients in the water. If a little bit of land/space is given back to the wetlands, more can eventually be used in the sea. This is a well known fact, but due to slow bureaucratic procedures and land owner issues little happens on a large scale. Time and nutrients passes…
In May 2010, Kultivator dug a pool next to one of these ditches. The water from the ditch was led into the pool and kept there. Water, plants and animals from natural pools was added to it, and a solar powered pump installed to give oxygen. In a small pool like this, it is beneficial if the water is sometimes stirred, what ducks and larger animals normally would do. Unfortunately, no wild ducks introduced themselves, so the village kids, with their remote control boat, some plastic toys and their dog would do that work during the summer. Meanwhile, under the surface, more and more microorganisms established themselves. Dragon flies appeared over the pool. Five freshwater mussels was put in, and to make it possible for them to reproduce, three goldfish were introduced. After a few weeks, shoals of small fish appeared. Probably the offspring of the goldfish. As a result of a project from a visiting artist the Asian water ferm Azolla was added, that can double its biomass in two days, under ideal conditions. It did. The Azolla was harvested to be used as green fertilizer on the raised beds of Kultivator, and fed to chickens and pigs. The pool is now containing salamanders, goldfish, frogs, bugs, worms, barbie dolls, some sunken ship and mussels and all these other little things we don’t know the name of. It also contained and processed nutrients that all this lived from during the five months it existed. The sea never even knew.
. The International Gallery18 September – 2 October Liverpool Biennial 2010 Curated by James Brady and Janette Porter (http://www.hightideuk.org/) Ditch it Environmental activism by play, art, and small and large animals, coordinated by Swedish art and agriculture initiative Kultivator. Kultivator is located on a flat limestone island that lacks natural rivers. Instead, there are man made ditches, that already since century's are leading water away from the island to the sea, to create more ground for cultivation and pastures. This has resulted in more land for people to feed on, but is also causing serious problems in the Baltic sea. The ditches carry the water quickly out, bringing with it nutrients leaking out from fertilized fields. This overfeeding of the sea results in an overproduction of algae, and dying seabeds due to lack of oxygen. Already since years, commercial fishing outside the coast of the island has ceased, and the beaches clog of rotting or poisonous algae, making it hard to play in the shallow water. In the inland the plants and animals living in small freshwater pools and swamps has less and less space to live and breed. The process is a matter of both time and space. If the fresh water is contained and stays on the island longer, microorganisms and larger animals and plants can process the nutrients in the water. If a little bit of land/space is given back to the wetlands, more can eventually be used in the sea. This is a well known fact, but due to slow bureaucratic procedures and land owner issues little happens on a large scale. Time and nutrients passes… In May 2010, Kultivator dug a pool next to one of these ditches. The water from the ditch was led into the pool and kept there. Water, plants and animals from natural pools was added to it, and a solar powered pump installed to give oxygen. In a small pool like this, it is beneficial if the water is sometimes stirred, what ducks and larger animals normally would do. Unfortunately, no wild ducks introduced themselves, so the village kids, with their remote control boat, some plastic toys and their dog would do that work during the summer. Meanwhile, under the surface, more and more microorganisms established themselves. Dragon flies appeared over the pool. Five freshwater mussels was put in, and to make it possible for them to reproduce, three goldfish were introduced. After a few weeks, shoals of small fish appeared. Probably the offspring of the goldfish. As a result of a project from a visiting artist the Asian water ferm Azolla was added, that can double its biomass in two days, under ideal conditions. It did. The Azolla was harvested to be used as green fertilizer on the raised beds of Kultivator, and fed to chickens and pigs. The pool is now containing salamanders, goldfish, frogs, bugs, worms, barbie dolls, some sunken ship and mussels and all these other little things we don't know the name of. It also contained and processed nutrients that all this lived from during the five months it existed. The sea never even knew.
The Wedding Between Art and Agriculture, in Dyestad, Öland
22 – 24th July 2010
Two ancient human activities will solemnly marry during a three-day wedding in the farm of Kultivator on Öland, Sweden, in this summer. The first two days involve a group of 20 especially invited people that work with the preparations. The last day, 24th July, the public is welcome to attend the ceremony and participate in the celebration that precedes and follows ..
Art and Agriculture will be put together, asked to condition themselves to each other and with the marriage go into a steady relationship. Cultural involvement in the development of future systems for food production is not about using a few creative minds to improve details of the whole. It is about making food production and farming a part of public awareness and knowledge. It is about sharing and discussing necessary decisions for the future openly and commonly. It is about enabling people to take active part in building systems and processing experience – through art + agriculture.
For five years, the experimental platform Kultivator has initiated, attended to- and executed projects that examines the context and cross-fertilization between agriculture and art. In these often international activities Kultivator have encountered a growing number of organizations and individuals involved in this field. A selected group of those are now gathering on the farm in Dyestad. They will during two days jointly prepare a suitable ritual, festivity and discussion topics fitting this historical association. The wedding is a transparent, public manifestation, but also the formal creation of a network between related organizations and individuals. The wedding has been prepared during a three month long exhibition in Kalmar art museum, and a review (in Swedish) can be read here:
Organizations participating in Dyestad are:
Plataforma Rural, Fernando Garcia, SP
My Villages, Wapke Feenstra, http://www.myvillages.org NL / D
Serde, Signe Pucena, Ugis Pucena, http://www.serde.lv/ LV
Grizedale Arts, Adam Sutherland, http://www.grizedale.org/ UK
The Australian A & A ACRE Network, Ian Tully, AU
Hesta farm, Oloph Fritzen http://www.4hlantbruk.se/documents/gard.html SE
Kalmar Art Museum, Inger Stjerna http://www.kalmarkonstmuseum.se/ SE
Fiona Woods, http://www.fionawoods.net/ IR
Louise Lövmo, People’s University, http://www.folkuniversitetet.se/ SE
Helle Kvamme, Yellowbox http://www.hellekvamme.se/yellowbox. SE
Gijs Frieling, http://www.gijsfrieling.nl/ NL
Andrew Paterson, SCO http://agryfp.info/ / FI
Erik Sjödin, http://eriksjodin.net/ SE
Benn Sena da Silva, DK
Randy Albright, U.S. / P
Thomas Bagge, DK
Mia Sloth Moller, DK
Those invited will include wedding speech, in which they formulate the possible opportunities and challenges this new relationship is facing. They will also in consultation with Kultivator design ceremony itself, which is therefore up to the date itself is unknown. We will during the day, before the ceremony, have workshops in: Vodka production in Latvian style, Cook and taste the future of fast food, Sketch out a dream farm, and also have talk sessions with the invited organizations. The International village shop by My Villages and Wapke Feenstra also opens up in our farm shop.
Brief information about the artists who have done special work to the wedding:
Gijs Frieling, NL (director W139, winner of the Prix de Rome, an associate professor at Rijksacademie Amsterdam, etc, etc) in Falu red mural of a purpose-built outdoor kitchen to the wedding.
Benn Sena da Silva, DK (utb. Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts, Rietveld Academy) One of the farm’s tractors painted in Delft blue porcelain.
Andrew Paterson, SCO (Andrew Paterson Gryf artist-organizing, Educator, Cultural producer, and independent researcher, based in Helsinki, Finland.) Clipkino Events Art and Agriculture.
Fiona Woods infrared (MA Art in the Contemporary World NCAD Dublin, Ireland) Showing and working on collaborative trans-european network for local production.
Michel Bussien SE “Sheep Lawn Mower” an application for Sheep.
Mathieu Vrijman GB / NL (founder Kultivator, Rietveld Academy) work on the show and the work “Camp” that will entertain the wedding guests, discussion groups and audiences in the wedding, and rebuilt as a remake of the camp from the television series MASH.
Marlene Lindmark SE (State Kunsthöyskole, Oslo) Make a dinner set for the wedding dinner with ornaments of over 200 parts second hand china.
Wapke Feenstra, NL; My Villages, shows “The international village shop with
Erik Sjödin SE. Shows his work “Super Meal” that is centered around growing, eating and cooking the super plant Azolla, also shown at Färgfabriken summer of 2010.
Sisters of Sättra SE Radical sewing circles, Öland; draft before the wedding dress of silage plastic.
Ingegerd Peterson, Loom with barbed wire
Programme:
12:00 arrival, exhibition of participating organizations and the display of custom artwork., Opening of the International Village shop.
13:00 to 14:00 time for lunch.
14:00 to 17:00 p.m. Workshop floral decoration for the young, Visualize your farm with Wapke Feenstra, vodka workshop with Serde from Latvia, Workshop “Super Meal” by Erik Sjödin, the cooking of Azolla. Group discussions / conversations with the audience, children’s activity continued.
17:00 to 18:00 ceremony / MARRIAGE CEREMONY with procession
18:00 to 20:00 Dinner with speakers, 10 + slide shows
21:00 Clipkino event Art and Agriculture, by Andrew Paterson
22:00 – Live Band Darya and the Moonlight Orchestra, VJ Art and Agriculture.
The wedding is to consolidate Kultivator as a place for the development of ideas and discussions on strategies for regional survival of art + agriculture as the base. We aim to continue our local and international discussion on future solutions from an artistic, economic and ecological point of view. We create with the wedding of a further foundation for our further activities on site at Öland.
www.kultivator.org
The wedding is implemented with the support of: The future of culture, The People’s University, The Regional Association of Kalmar and LRF
[AFG_gallery id=’24’]
.......
. The Wedding Between Art and Agriculture, in Dyestad, Öland 22 – 24th July 2010 Two ancient human activities will solemnly marry during a three-day wedding in the farm of Kultivator on Öland, Sweden, in this summer. The first two days involve a group of 20 especially invited people that work with the preparations. The last day, 24th July, the public is welcome to attend the ceremony and participate in the celebration that precedes and follows .. Art and Agriculture will be put together, asked to condition themselves to each other and with the marriage go into a steady relationship. Cultural involvement in the development of future systems for food production is not about using a few creative minds to improve details of the whole. It is about making food production and farming a part of public awareness and knowledge. It is about sharing and discussing necessary decisions for the future openly and commonly. It is about enabling people to take active part in building systems and processing experience – through art + agriculture. For five years, the experimental platform Kultivator has initiated, attended to- and executed projects that examines the context and cross-fertilization between agriculture and art. In these often international activities Kultivator have encountered a growing number of organizations and individuals involved in this field. A selected group of those are now gathering on the farm in Dyestad. They will during two days jointly prepare a suitable ritual, festivity and discussion topics fitting this historical association. The wedding is a transparent, public manifestation, but also the formal creation of a network between related organizations and individuals. The wedding has been prepared during a three month long exhibition in Kalmar art museum, and a review (in Swedish) can be read here: http://lh3.ggpht.com/_W63dWK-DVUA/TA3zlNktJVI/AAAAAAAABa8/C-HjYIL2QpM/dn.jpg Organizations participating in Dyestad are: Plataforma Rural, Fernando Garcia, SP My Villages, Wapke Feenstra, http://www.myvillages.org NL / D Serde, Signe Pucena, Ugis Pucena, http://www.serde.lv/ LV Grizedale Arts, Adam Sutherland, http://www.grizedale.org/ UK The Australian A & A ACRE Network, Ian Tully, AU Hesta farm, Oloph Fritzen http://www.4hlantbruk.se/documents/gard.html SE Kalmar Art Museum, Inger Stjerna http://www.kalmarkonstmuseum.se/ SE Fiona Woods, http://www.fionawoods.net/ IR Louise Lövmo, People's University, http://www.folkuniversitetet.se/ SE Helle Kvamme, Yellowbox http://www.hellekvamme.se/yellowbox. SE Gijs Frieling, http://www.gijsfrieling.nl/ NL Andrew Paterson, SCO http://agryfp.info/ / FI Erik Sjödin, http://eriksjodin.net/ SE Benn Sena da Silva, DK Randy Albright, U.S. / P Thomas Bagge, DK Mia Sloth Moller, DK Those invited will include wedding speech, in which they formulate the possible opportunities and challenges this new relationship is facing. They will also in consultation with Kultivator design ceremony itself, which is therefore up to the date itself is unknown. We will during the day, before the ceremony, have workshops in: Vodka production in Latvian style, Cook and taste the future of fast food, Sketch out a dream farm, and also have talk sessions with the invited organizations. The International village shop by My Villages and Wapke Feenstra also opens up in our farm shop. Brief information about the artists who have done special work to the wedding: Gijs Frieling, NL (director W139, winner of the Prix de Rome, an associate professor at Rijksacademie Amsterdam, etc, etc) in Falu red mural of a purpose-built outdoor kitchen to the wedding. Benn Sena da Silva, DK (utb. Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts, Rietveld Academy) One of the farm's tractors painted in Delft blue porcelain. Andrew Paterson, SCO (Andrew Paterson Gryf artist-organizing, Educator, Cultural producer, and independent researcher, based in Helsinki, Finland.) Clipkino Events Art and Agriculture. Fiona Woods infrared (MA Art in the Contemporary World NCAD Dublin, Ireland) Showing and working on collaborative trans-european network for local production. Michel Bussien SE “Sheep Lawn Mower" an application for Sheep. Mathieu Vrijman GB / NL (founder Kultivator, Rietveld Academy) work on the show and the work "Camp" that will entertain the wedding guests, discussion groups and audiences in the wedding, and rebuilt as a remake of the camp from the television series MASH. Marlene Lindmark SE (State Kunsthöyskole, Oslo) Make a dinner set for the wedding dinner with ornaments of over 200 parts second hand china. Wapke Feenstra, NL; My Villages, shows "The international village shop with Erik Sjödin SE. Shows his work "Super Meal" that is centered around growing, eating and cooking the super plant Azolla, also shown at Färgfabriken summer of 2010. Sisters of Sättra SE Radical sewing circles, Öland; draft before the wedding dress of silage plastic. Ingegerd Peterson, Loom with barbed wire Programme: 12:00 arrival, exhibition of participating organizations and the display of custom artwork., Opening of the International Village shop. 13:00 to 14:00 time for lunch. 14:00 to 17:00 p.m. Workshop floral decoration for the young, Visualize your farm with Wapke Feenstra, vodka workshop with Serde from Latvia, Workshop "Super Meal" by Erik Sjödin, the cooking of Azolla. Group discussions / conversations with the audience, children's activity continued. 17:00 to 18:00 ceremony / MARRIAGE CEREMONY with procession 18:00 to 20:00 Dinner with speakers, 10 + slide shows 21:00 Clipkino event Art and Agriculture, by Andrew Paterson 22:00 – Live Band Darya and the Moonlight Orchestra, VJ Art and Agriculture. The wedding is to consolidate Kultivator as a place for the development of ideas and discussions on strategies for regional survival of art + agriculture as the base. We aim to continue our local and international discussion on future solutions from an artistic, economic and ecological point of view. We create with the wedding of a further foundation for our further activities on site at Öland. www.kultivator.org The wedding is implemented with the support of: The future of culture, The People's University, The Regional Association of Kalmar and LRF
(Dansk version findes her: http://vimeo.com/25896527)
The Wedding Between Art & Agriculture, 2011. (Full version, 39 min).
A documentary about KULTIVATOR, an experimental cooperation of organic farming and visual art practice, situated in rural village Dyestad, on the island of Öland, Sweden.
In the summer of 2010 Kultivator initiated The Wedding Between Art and Agriculture, an artist conference and public ceremony which intended to unite the two ancient activities. The film shows the preparation process before the wedding ceremony – with flashbacks to a variety of agricultural and social projects that Kultivator have initiated, and thus gives a glimpse into the experimental and idealistic world of Kultivator.
Several languages spoken. English subtitles.
Information about Kultivator: https://kultivator.org/
02:29 Interview with Malin Lindmark Vrijman & Mathieu Vrijman: The beginning of Kultivator.
04:22 Tractor Ballet 2004.
05:17 Wedding participants first meeting.
07:29 Interview: The countryside.
08:46 Dinner with the Cows 2005.
09:33 Interview: Art and Agriculture.
13:36 Interview: Kultivator as an artist group.
15:40 Interview: The Wedding – family and networks.
18:37 Fiona Woods and Mia Sloth Møller presenting plan.
20:19 Discussion: Gijs Frieling, Adam Sutherland, Fernando Garcia.
22:32 Meeting in the barn.
25:21 Preparations in the barn.
27:30 The guests are arriving. Workshops. Presentations.
30:32 The wedding ceremony.
34:14 Dinner, speeches and dancing.
