Elon Kierre - becoming with the land explores contemporary narratives on rural rituals: from local harvest celebrations like kekri, to personal encounters and family history. The exhibition addresses the potential of rituals in today’s world in relation to agricultural and rural life.

Traditions and rituals intertwine in our personal and communal life. Some date back to ancient history and are deeply embedded celebrations, interwoven within the communities they belong to. Others are small personal gestures that are formed and reconsidered in the convergence of family, friends, communities, or strangers.

The artworks explore rhythms that can be found in traditions and rituals, which often echo the cyclicity of life, and thread through changing times in the hope of cultivating intergenerational knowledge. The exhibition investigates the links between past and contemporary, and the roles that rituals play in shaping our collective imagination and the ways in which we relate to nature today.

Elon Kierre invites us to rethink our relationship with nature and the non-human world. The artworks open up new perspectives and recuperate old stories to share narratives that we need to see represented, against or alongside the discourse that rituals have historically conveyed. The exhibition explores rituals in the context of the rural today and encourages us to think beyond the present, and to break down notions of class, identity, gender, and work, in order to facilitate a discussion on more sustainable and intersectional ways of living, knowing and caring.

Artists: Clément Beraud, Sara Blosseville, Cyane Findji & Genietta Varsi, Myriam Gras & Jaakko Heikinheimo, Riina Hannula, Ella Kiviniemi & Elias Lahtinen, Sari Koski-Vähälä, Viljami Nissi, Kati Silo and Rohan Stevenson.

Curatorial team: Micol Curatolo, Julia Fidder, Sadet Hirsimäki, Aska Mayer, Iida Nissinen, Martina Šerešová. Technique: Clément Beraud and Cyane Findji. Exhibition design: Cyane Findji. Communication and marketing: Aska Mayer. Production: Micol Curatolo, Julia Fidder, Sadet Hirsimäki, Martina Šerešová. Visuals: Cyane Findji. Drawings: Rutger Blom. Fonts: Vladislav Tschumi, Dinamo. Photographer: Teemu Ullgrén.

We thank Laura Beloff, Patrizia Costantin, Pia Euro, Tapani Jokiniemi and Viikki Research Farm, Maria Mastola, Kari Kaariainen, Max Ryynänen, Jarkko Sopanen, Aalto TakeOut.