HUMAN FORESTRY

by 10 x 10 meters:

Eva Labotkin, Epp Kubu, Tanel Rander, Mai Sööt, Villem Jahu and Andrus Lauringson

Manifesto

Duration: 3 hours

Performance Compost

October 7, 2012

Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma  Helsinki, Finland

Thanks: Margit Lõhmus, Nooralotta Ikkonen, Sonja Laitinen

In 2012 spring Kiasma made an open call for proposals to an international performance event.

The topic was performance and archiving, documentation and the possibility of a performance in a museum context. Kiasma also noted that it is not possible to pay any artist fee or support art production.

10 x 10 meters collective decided to participate with action that
refers to relations between Estonia and Finland, regarding migration,
human labor and inequality.

A pile of logs was planned to be transported from Estonia to Finland,
downloaded next to Kiasma and rolled into gallery space.

Because of current social reality, where officially ca 30 000 and unofficially

ca 100 000 Estonian immigrants are working in Finland, we decided to perform a critical action. 

Estonian national resources - human labor and timber - are transported from Estonia to Kiasma and stored in gallery space, on Estonian taxpayer's expense. Kiasma has right to decide, how to handle or archive this material. 

The whole process was the following:

Kiasma accepted 18 logs, the rest had to stay outside. The action lasted 1h 15 min instead of 3 hours as planned. x people joined the manifesto and helped 10x10m roll the logs. All the logs, including the 18 rolled inside, had to be deported to Estonia. 

"Human Forestry" performance video documentation was presented:

"Archaeology and the Future of Estonian Art Scenes" 

Curators: Eha Komissarov, Kaiti Ilves, Rael Artel

Kumu Art Museum  •  Tallinn, Estonia

October 19-December 30, 2012

“Shifting Identities”

Curator: Ludovico Pratesi

MACRO  •  Testaccio, Rome

May 20 – September 14, 2014