Future grasslands

Kultivator – proposal for HEST! 

For the exhibition HEST! at Ronnebaeksholm konsthall, Kultivator proposes an intervention experimenting with interspecies collaboration and exchange of knowledge. The artwork in three parts encompasses and invites horse-human-soil-plant entanglements adding to the overall ecosystem of the place (and of our ways of being together..) In the research of herbs – grass – horse interactions, Kultivator found a study made in the post-nuclear disaster zones of Chernobyl, where herds of the Pzerwalski horse (the last wild horse species) are roaming free. The study is listing the plant preferences of horses that are choosing their diet, (literally in no-mans-land) instead of being served by humans. The artwork is inspired by this scientific observation of a pre-historic horse in a post-apocalyptic landscape, and positions the self-governed taste of the Chernobyl horses as an autonomous nutritional practice and culture, informing three interconnected works:  1. Horse Self-medicating Garden, 2. Future Grasslands, and 3. Regeneration centerpiece.

1. The Horse Self – medicating Garden is an invitation for horses and their human companions to smell, taste and observe together, taking a walk along a path framed by plants with medicinal properties (for both species). The medicinal properties are identified in human scientific or/and other belief-systems, with short summaries written on the wooden plant shelters. For the visiting horses, the information of the remedies are presented by the plants themselves: by smell, taste, shape and colors, probably and possibly corresponding with both evolutionary memory and personal experience for each individual. The joint walk passing these different displays of information, with freedom for both to select which plants to consume, offers a way for the walking companions to learn more about the desires and needs of each other. The Horse self-medicating garden acknowledge Horse experience and ability to make choices, and was inaugurated in June 2024.
2. Future Grasslands is a small patch of land near the garden. Here a slow transformation from present monoculture lawn towards future biodiverse grassland is initiated by Kultivator and gardener Sara Gade. The grass that grows there will is cut and moved to create space for the species noted in the study of Pzerwalskis horses in the Chernobyl exception zone. Through the summer of 2024, seeds have been collected in meadows on Öland that correspond with the study. The seeds were then used in a workshop in October making seed-paper sheets as letters to the future grasslands, and placed in the patch. The letters will be “read” by the piece of land during the winter, and in the spring to come the herbs and grasses listed by the wild horses will sprout, slowly composing the Future Grasslands. 
3. Regenerative Centerpiece. Is the beginning and the end of all activities in the garden, and therefore stands in the center of it. It invites visitors of the garden to take a rest in the shadow and watch, smell and feel the de-composing and re- generating works of millions of sub visible companions, connecting the different activities of the garden. They are processing manure from the visiting horses, decomposing grass from the Future Grasslands patch and arranging other garden left overs into new life supporting matter, which will return to and nurture the cultivations in Horse Self-medicating garden. The structure that supports the work began as trunks of trees, cut down to be pallets, and then re purposed by Kultivator as building elements for the walls and benches of the Regenerative Centerpiece. 

River community research in Turkey

The Observatory: Art and Life in the Critical Zone

Kin Museum of Contemporary Art 

Wayward art initiatives

Konstens kraft i folk & mark

Lansering av Konstfrämjandet Gotland

Residens Symbiotiska kopplingar i och med Rogsån, Falun

From two residence periods in the summer of 2023 in and with the small river “Rogsån”, Kultivator invited to a gathering In Österå village community building, previous village school. Malin Lindmark Vrjman and Mathieu Vrjman from Kultivator held a presentation of their artistic practice, and gave three workshops/actions that dive deeper into the river Rogsån, and at the same time starts a network work around and with watercourses in Sweden, Norway and Canada. In the first workshop, "a fleet for the future", Mathieu Vrijman invites you to equip (and then launch) boat sculptures for the challenges of the future. The models are inspired by the finds of ancient log boats that were made in  Igeltjärn near Rogsån in the 1930s, and disappeared from Dalarna's museum in the 60s. The boats, and descriptions of fishing gear that were found near them, indicate Sami presence in the area. What knowledge and approaches to the water in the landscape have been pushed aside and forgotten in the story of our common past? How can we lift and remember the forgotten in the face
of the change the climate crisis and the mass extinction of species are presenting to us? The conversation and fitting out of the boats is followed by a joint walk to Rogsån, where they are launched for further travel through the water system. The second workshop, "The Net" is led by Malin Lindmark Vrijman with the help of Lina Sofia Lundin. Here we materialize the network of waterways by literally tying a web together, of the fibers and with the craft knowledge found in the area. For Rogsåns net, we use flax yarn, grown, processed and spun nearby. During the work with the hands, we invite to also share stories, memories, or other
thoughts around the river, based on material from a study circle that is available to take part in during the workshop. The piece of net we tie while we talk becomes the very first part of the Net which will travel on to other places near watercourses, where it is tied further with other people who have a relationship with their water, with other local materials/ fibers, and other stories. We think of the net as a work that never ends, but can travel around to communities near water as long as
someone has the strength to carry it. In the last workshop/action, those who want to go with the local Fishing association out to Rogsån
and we contribute tangibly together to their work with the restoration of the river for increased
biological diversity.