Iida Jonsson (FI) Ssi Saarinen (FI) & Ona Julija Lukas Steponaityte (LT)

Deep Forest Art Land Award Winners

See the works of the artist collective here

"Deep Forest Art Land is looking forward to working with Iida Jonsson, Ssi Saarinen, Ona Julija Lukas Steponaitytė in the forest. When I look at their practice I came to think of E. P. Evans' classic work The Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of Animals from 1906. Here is a small excerpt from Annette K. Nielsen's review of the book;

"In Denmark we know of a few cases of legal action against animals. In the village of Als, in 1711, a case was brought against mice, rats and mice for causing irreparable damage to crops and harvests. The animals were offered compensation, but they did not take up the offer and were instead given two weeks to leave the fields. In 1805, mice were again on the loose, this time with legal repercussions on Lyø."
"If animals got a good defence lawyer, it happened that the court had to drop the charges. This was the case, for example, with a mob of rats accused of 'unlawfully and recklessly destroying a crop of barley' in a French village in the early 1500s. Their defense lawyer, Bartheolomew Chassenee, according to Evans, made a brilliant legal career after the rat defense. The rats were summoned by the court and asked to appear on a specified date. Not surprisingly, they did not show up on the date, and Chassenee used a variety of legal ploys to excuse the animals' non-appearance. Time and again, he got the trial postponed. The rats moved from village to village and were difficult to get hold of, he said. They hadn't all been properly informed, and they were afraid of the cats, who were always lurking on the way to court. In the end, the judge dismissed the charges because the villagers refused to keep their cats indoors until the trial was over."

Here in Denmark, we need outside help to massage our relationship with the landscape and nature. In Deep Forest Art Land we work with the schism between man and nature as a basic foundation together with the seasons. In the Middle Ages, people thought that stones were of course alive, after all they do come out of the ground, they were just very slow creatures. How do young artists see it all and can you sense it in their works ? We have to listen to the future all the time, so we are looking forward to it."-René Schmidt, on behalf of Deep Forest Art Land

 

"We are interested in the surplus generated in the urban; represented at the Charlottenborg Spring Exhibition through scents composed from the accumulation of materials in sewage systems and a terrarium for invasive subjects occupying the streets: rats, spilled gasoline, icicles, superweeds. For us, these beings, presented as deviations in general narratives, hold a significant potency through their othered character. We were curious about the space where they are unleashed, which was the starting point for our work. We look very much forward to extending this practice into the forests of Kibæk, fueled by the Deep Forest Artland prize." - Iida Jonsson (FI) Ssi Saarinen (FI) and Ona Julija Lukas Steponaityte (LT)

About the Deep Forest Art Land Prize: the jury, together with co-founder of Deep Forest Art Land Søren Taaning, has selected the winner of the Deep Forest Art Land Prize, which triggers the opportunity to create a site-specific work for the sculpture park in Kibæk.