Image: Sirkku Rosi, Bundle, aquarelle on paper, 2025.

Bioart Society and Food Art Research Network invite you to join us for a lively research assembly to celebrate and activate the newly launched publication Follow the Plants, edited by Madeleine Collie and Yvonne Billimore, and published by Discipline and Onomatopee.  

Follow the Plants gathers artists, writers and researchers who engage with plants as collaborators, teachers, and political agents, and engages critical research by interrogating the economic, political, and colonial forces that have shaped human-plant relations. 

The book's contributions invite us into processes of encounter and entanglement that explore intersections of art, science and  ecology, through diverse knowledges and situated practices. In response, the assembly establishes correspondences between the publications contributions, and local practitioners, places and publics in Helsinki, inviting further processes of collective research to unfurl beyond the page. 

This free, multi-day open programme brings research to life through film, performance and social practice. Both theoretical and embodied, it unfolds through growing, cultivation and food-based practices, situating artistic research within the creative lives of plants. 

Contributors

Event programme curated by Madeleine Collie and Yvonne Billimore, featuring: Alana Hunt, Annalee Davis, Christian Thompson, Edible Archives (Shalini Krishan and Anumitra Ghosh Dastidar), Joana Quiroga, Joona Sorsa, Joss Allen, Julia Kemppinen, Katie Lenanton, Kyriaki Goni, Margherita Pevere, Mariana Martínez Balvanera, Matti Aikio, Nathalie Muchamad, Rubiane Maia, Sepideh Rahaa, Sirkku Rosi, Sonja Donner and Zayaan Khan,

Film programme curated by Danai Anagnostou, featuring: AK Wane, Alana Hunt, Barbara Hammer, Catriona Gallagher, Elia Nurvista, Otar Iosseliani, Theo Panagopoulos, Yugantar Collective. 

Assembly programme

All Follow the Plants Research Assembly programme is free of charge but some venues have limited capacity.

Wednesday 26 August
18:00-21:00 Kitchen Correspondences from Goa to Helsinki
with a menu by Shalini Krishan and Anumitra Ghosh Dastidar (Edible Archives), and Joona Sorsa and Sonja Donner (Koekeittiö )
Venue: Koekeittiö / Test Kitchen

Thursday 27 August
17:00-18:30 Follow the Plants Book Launch
with readings and responses by editors Madeleine Collie and Yvonne Billimore, contributors Kyriaki Goni and Matti Aikio, and researcher Julia Kemppinen. Drinks by curator Katie Lenanton.
Venue: HAM - Helsinki Art Museum.

Friday 28 August
11:00-14:00 Follow the Plants x Kenno Filmi film program
curated by Danai Anagnostou, featuring AK Wane, Alana Hunt, Barbara Hammer, Catriona Gallagher, Elia Nurvista, Otar Iosseliani, Theo Panagopoulos, Yugantar Collective.
Venue: Cinema Orion

16:00-18:00 Botanic Garden Readings and Radio
with OOO Radio and Follow the Plants contributors near and far, including Alana Hunt, Annalee Davis, Christian ThompsonJoana Quiroga, Joss Allen, Mariana Martínez Balvanera, Sirkku Rosi and Zayaan Khan,
Venue: Kaisaniemi Botanic Garden, outdoor garden and broadcast on OOO Radio

Saturday 29 August
14:00-16:00 Breadfruit: Recipes of a Recalcitrant Seed
with Nathalie Muchamad

17:00-21:00 Follow the Plants Evening of Performance 
with Margherita Pevere, Sepideh Rahaa and Rubiane Maia.
Venue: HIAP Gallery Augusta

Partners and funders

The assembly programme is realised in a city wide partnership and will take place at HIAP - Helsinki International Artist Programme, Helsinki Art Museum, Kaisanemi Botanic Garden (outdoor garden) with OOO Radio, Cinema Orion with Kenno Filmi, and Koekeittiö / Test Kitchen. 

The assembly is generously funded by Saastamoinen Foundation with support from the Finnish Institute in the UK and Ireland and AVEK, Mediarata 9. 

The Follow The Plants book is published by Onomatopee and Discipline, and funded by Creative Australia, Saastamoinen Foundation, Frame Contemporary Art Finland, Stanley Picker Gallery Kingston University, and the University of East London Sustainability Research Institute.