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![Elder’s Hill]()
Elder’s Hill is a collaborative project by M12 (USA) and Kultivator (SE), made site-specifically in
Öland Sweden. This work is emblematic of M12 and Kultivator’s artistic practice, based largely around
cultural exchange in a rural context and in the case of Elder’s Hill, particular attention the sharing
of intergenerational knowledge. Elder’s Hill is a part of a much larger and on-going project initiated
by M12 and Kultivator in 2011, titled Gran’s University,
"The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there."
L. P. Hartley (1895–1972),
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With Big thanks to all the participants
“Gran´s University”
Background:
The inspiration for us to start the project Grans´ university, comes from the initiative of Mrs Vendana Shiva, India, that started up her Grandmothers university in Navdanya, North India, in 2003.
"…is aimed at both celebrating and validating the wisdom of our grandmothers, as well as transmitting this to future generations…"
What drew our attention, was that she did this as a reaction on the 9.11 attacks in 2001. The idea of turning to the grandmothers when times get hard inspired us, since they are not usually considered the ones that have the answers when it comes to great challenges of the future.
We are now, far more than terrorism, facing enormous challenges considering farming and food security, due to a specialized and alienated technological development since the green revolution of the 60:es. At this moment in time, we have the possibility to turn to the last generation in our part of the world that was still around before this. We have to look for and find ways to preserve and share knowledge that does not capture in text, to resurrect the deep connection between culture and agriculture, for a future where we do things differently.
Gran´s university wants to be the beginning of a movement that rethinks and rediscovers sustainable systems used by previous generations, mediated through art… Farming and taking care of food are areas where we know for sure that there is an accumulated experience, and we can see that it only partly has transcend into today's highly specialized systems. The reason why some certain ways of doing things has not transcend, might be that they were replaced by something that was better, but it could also be that some certain things just missed an adequate form and context to be “handed over” with, or in. The artistic investigation into this form, is the core of the project Gran´s university. Setting this up is thus not just investigating forgotten techniques for farming and living sustainably, but, equally important, play with the relation of art and the “real”. Can we move on from the critical to the constructive? Can culture and its ornaments again weave together agri – culture, from the fields and the soil into the kitchens and further into us?
The cooperation with M12, Colorado, US, was to create a structure for the Gran´s university, by building a physical form for it, and inventing a form of content. In spring 2013, Kultivator travelled to M12 in Colorado, and started the process, using a mobile unit visiting elderly people on the plains. The billboard set up was one first announcement of Gran´s university.
We wish this to be a starting point for a movement that reinvents not only how we look at progress and modernity, but also celebrates the deep connection visual arts and crafts has with the farming of the land.
This collaboration has been supported by the iaspis-programme AirKalmar, run by Kalmar konstmuseum. Other partners in the programme are Lindöateljéerna and Glass Factory. AirKalmar is funded by iaspis, The Regional Council and the local Municipalities.
Workshop leader: Robert Ek
6 and 7 June
08.30 Bus from Kalmar Theatre to Dyestad on Öland
09.00-15.00 Workshop, coffee break and lunch included
15.00 Bus back to Kalmar Theatre.
Adress: Dyestad, Bygata 7, Färjestaden
Digital Culture can be regarded as a praxis of communicative interactions between people on line. We do what we always have done, sharing knowledge, bending reality, but the speed has increased and distances have shortened.
From digital culture may emerge a digital tradition of knowledge gathering, production and collaboration as a mindset practised locally off line and reaching globally on line. Such a contiguous interplay between online interactions and offline practice can be found in different movements such as Occupy, the DIY movement etc., which have emerged on a broad scale in a short time. In this workshop we will participate with Kultivator, a collaborative artist collective working with farming in a local and a global context.
Together we will identify areas of interest for designers, artists, architects, programmers and interaction designers, and we will work collaboratively hands on with problems of knowledge sharing and knitting distant areas together.
The workshop will take place on the Kultivator farm in Dyestad in rural Öland, an island close to Kalmar. Bring rough clothes!
Robert Ek is an interaction designer with a multidisciplinary background in history, media sociology and art.
participants:
Frederic Degouzon, (France). Annabel Pretty, (New Zealand). Maria Luisa Galbiati, (Italy). Eric Maquet, (Belgium). Takayuki Higuchi,(Japan). Junfeng Ding, (China). Steve Diskin, (USA). Yu-Chun Liu, (Taiwan) .Åse Huus, (Norge). Elisa Bertolotti, (Italy).
[AFG_gallery id=’68’]
A cooperation with M12 (http://m12studio.org/)
Last Chance, Colorado and Dyestad, Sweden
Gran’s University is an artwork inspired by Mrs. Vendana Shiva who in 2003 started the Grandmothers University in Navdanya, North India. The aim of the Grandmothers University is to both celebrate and validate the wisdom of our grandmothers, as well as transmitting this to future generations. Members of Kultivator and M12, motivated by this act of sharing generational knowledge have developed the Gran’s University project to build an archive of rural cultural exchanges based on the knowledge of pioneer women. This artwork and cultural exchange can serve as a catalyst for building long-term dialogue about the importance of rural cultural initiatives that specifically address important global issues such as; environmental sustainability; global economies coexisting with local economies; food production; and the ever diversification of the social landscape in remote regions.
Generously funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts—Our Town and the Gates Family Foundation
[AFG_gallery id=’67’]
Jana Fröberg has spent this spring with Kultivator,
working out compost and cultivation plans. She has studied art as well as gardening.
In a close collaboration between human and microorganisms, materials can slowly be processed into something very valuable. Human only have to create the right conditions, and so specific microbes will show up to do what they’re best at. According to what you set up, a pot of sauerkraut may be produced, or else you stand there, just waiting for compost to happen.
Compost derives from the same word as composition, meaning it’s a pleasant and beautiful mix of materials such as carbon and nitrogen, waste and manure as well as of life and death. No one seems to know where the borderline goes between these two opposites. Maybe simultaneously to the decomposition happening, new humus is built up. Anyhow this humus is of fundamental importance to all life on earth. It’s where it starts, and where it ends.
Composts can be constructed in many different ways.
At the time of my arrival to Dyestad,
all earlier composts lay well hidden under a thick layer of snow.
So it stayed for many weeks, and so I stayed inside
dreaming about the different compost types that could possibly fit into the area.
Lövkompost –Leaf compost
Förkompostering –Pre composting tombola
Färdig limpa –Open compost
Som en del av växtföljden –Compost as part of crop rotation
Stallgödselkompost –Horse manure compost
Allmänning/kompostplats –Common land / composting space
Maskkompost –Worm compost
Bokashi
Isolerad behållare –Isolated bin
18-dagars compost –18-days compost
Upphöjd kompost–I kombination med varmbänk –Compost in combination to a heated cultivation bench
[AFG_gallery id=’66’]
During fall gardens are normally covered with leaves.
Leaves are rich in carbon and normally use a long time to be totally decomposed.
Further they don’t have as much nutrition as fresh food waste or manure,
but composted they turn into the perfect texture and matter for sowing seeds.
Fresh food can favourably be kept in a closed compost bin as a start,
to prevent rats and other animals to play around too much.
Beside an out door kitchen in this garden stands an old cement-mixer,
making up the perfect first-stop-space for fresh and rich food scraps.
Not so smelly material, as well as pre composted food waste,
can be put together in an open pile and left to stand for about a year.
Compost is often put together during fall,
and in spring it’s good to turn the compost over
and mix the materials thoroughly to balance the process
that is always strongest in the middle.
Compost can be done anywhere,
but some places suites it better.
Close to trees that gives shade and shelter from heavy rains is good,
but you should avoid a too close contact to conifers.
Another aspect is where the waste is produced and how far you actually fancy to move it.
Including compost in a crop rotation means less heavy work for yourself,
and a good year of rest for the crops.
The coming spring you turn the compost over
so it’s well decomposed when the cultivation season starts.
Pumpkins are a good example of what likes to grow in rich, compost soil.
When cleaning out the horse stable all shit is put in a pile.
Manure from different animals consists of a different compound of nutrients,
and for example horse manure works very strong immediately
which is hard for a cultivated crop to handle.
Others do naturally work a bit more smooth and even during a long period.
When composting manure, nutrients such as nitrogen unfortunately leak out into the water,
but much is also bound into less easily soluble compounds.
This way the shit transforms to a great fertiliser for cultivation.
Right next to Kultivator’s place in Dyestad,
lies the village’s former common land.
Just being a corner between the dirt road and the horse paddock,
people used to meet here when coming to collect water from the well.
During the last years, several efforts have been made to make it a social space again
by furnishing it with benches and the like.
Not really working,
I suggest turning it into a common compost land,
where those who want can leave their waste,
and those who needs soil or fertilisers can come to get some.
Arriving at Kultivator’s place
it took me a couple of days before I asked about their compost system.
About the same time the first snowstorm hit us.
Still we could put food waste in their worm compost that they keep inside the kitchen.
No smell, but a fast production of humus.
Bokashi is an alternative to compost.
In opposite to traditional composting you create an anaerobic environment for the waste in a covered bin.
There you inoculate a specific mix of bacteria
that commercially goes under the name Effective Microorganisms, EM.
These will start a fermentation of the material,
which therefore visually will keep it’s look like during a preservation of vegetables.
The liquid created can be used as fertilizer for plants,
and the material dug down in the garden will attract and activate a good mix of bacteria,
and this way make the soil more alive.
Well down in the earth the waste will fast be decomposed.
This compost bin was built by Kultivator a few years ago and has been used since,
by continually filling it with fresh food waste.
It’s built in an isolating material,
and also during winter there has been a path in the snow from the veranda door to here.
When putting together an 18-days compost,
I used this pre composted material as one important ingredient.
In the bottom the material was already well composted,
and could have been used directly as a fertiliser.
As soon as spring discreetly arrived,
I put together a compost meant to be ready in 18 days.
This became the big entry of an end,
and the completion of something not yet started.
An 18-days compost is a perma culture method to fast get a ready compost / fertiliser.
By combining many different components,
building it high and turning it each second day,
you can activate the microorganisms so much
that you’ll have a ready compost soil in only three weeks.
Since spring didn’t show up this spring,
and I had come here to do garden work,
I thought about different ways to construct warmer microclimates.
One of them was to set up a compost in a cultivation box built by stone,
on top of which a shelf for pot plants could be put.
The whole creation would then be covered with glass,
and so sun would heat the sowing from above and compost from underneath.
