Frontiers in Retreat feature artist: Mari Keski-Korsu

Frontiers in Retreat

Frontiers in Retreat (FiR) is a five-year collaboration project that fosters multidisciplinary dialogue on ecological questions within a European network involving artist residencies, art and education organisations, artists, experts in various disciplines as well as diverse audiences. The aim of the project is to broaden the understanding of global ecological changes and their local impacts on European natural environments by means of contemporary artistic practices and through a multidisciplinary approach.

During the course of FiR, SSW has hosted residencies for six artists in the network and worked closely with each of them throughout to support and develop their individual projects. These artists are Brett Bloom, Sylvia Grace Borda, Fernando Garcia-Dory, Carl Giffney, Mari Keski-Korsu and Simon Yuill.

As the Frontiers in Retreat project draws to an end, we will present and reflect on each of these artist’s practices developed at SSW and bring these together with a wider group of practices through Edge Effects; a programme of workshops, walks, sound work, film and performance that explore the complex co-dependencies between ecological, social, economic, and political phenomena.

The SSW Edge Effects programme will take place in Glasgow between the 27 – 30 July, at the CCA and venues across the city. For the full programme please visit: Edge Effects

In the month leading up to the Edge Effects programme, each week we will feature a Frontiers in Retreat artist who has undertaken a residency at SSW. This is an great opportunity to share their projects which have been formulated and realised at SSW in rural Aberdeenshire, and will be presented during Edge Effects in Glasgow.

WEEK 2 – Frontiers In Retreat feature artist:
Mari Keski-Korsu

Mari Keski-Korsu is a transdisciplinary artist. She explores how ecological and socio-economical changes manifest in everyday life. Keski-Korsu’s permaculturic practice can be in the form of interventions, documentary, performance, virtual worlds and installations.

In the context of our global humanitarian crisis we need to become more aware of our ability to nurture deep connections and build our capacities for empathic communication with other species and entities within our ecosystems.
Mari Keski-Korsu

Clydesdale Oracle
Mari has organised and facilitated two Clydesdale Oracle’s through SSW, the first being part of Camp BreakDown Break Down and the second being at Strathorn Farm Stables for SSW Incubator. The Clydesdale Oracle aims to ask help and advice for humankind from other animals. It looks at the possibility of expanding human consciousness on the present state and future prospects of life on Earth by practicing the skills of inter-species communication or telepathy. These sessions search for emphatic connection to other species and trough that a deeper connection to the ecosystem we live in.

The Scottish Sculpture Workshop sauna was purpose built with Mari for her Beat To The Balance project during Camp BreakDown Break Down and the SSW Incubator: Sitting on Eggs. Now regularly used during SSW residencies the sauna has become a key space for people to relax, discuss, contemplate, connect, and keep warm in the winter!

For the Edge Effects programme in July, Mari will bring her Beat to the Balance to the Arlington Baths Club in Glasgow. Over the Thursday and Friday you can sign up for one to one sauna whisking sessions with Mari Keski-Korsu or Maaria Alén. Mari will also be running a Holding Space with trees workshop on the Saturday morning. See below for more details on each.

Edge Effects: Beat to the Balance
Mari Keski-Korsu & Maaria Alén
Thursday 27 July & Friday 28 July: 9am – 5pm
Arlington Baths Club, Glasgow
Through this ritualistic, whisking practice the interdependence between tree communities and humans can be made more tangible, heightened by the sauna space. The trees present in the sauna will be Birch, Oak, Maple, Rowan and Juniper. In the sauna with trees, self-care transforms into ourselves-care, kinship that could be an even stronger asset than warfare; it is a building block for the narrative of humanity.

Self-care is not self-indulgence but self-preservation and as such, an act of political warfare.
Civil rights activist Audre Lorde.

For more information and to book your one to one whisking session: click here

Edge Effects: Holding Space with Trees
Mari Keski- Korsu
Saturday 29 July: 11am – 1pm
CCA Glasgow
Holding Space with Trees is an introduction to inter-species forest communication. During the workshop the group will look for different kinds of tree species that might call for them and learn what kind of effects these trees have on people. In this workshop, the group will try to understand ecosystems around them not as a resource but as equal communities interdependent of each other. There will be a tree leaf bathing ritual at the end of this workshop.

For more information and to book your place in this workshop: click here