Down to Earth

Set off on a journey beyond the boundaries of the global and the local—towards your planetary self!

Sculptor Nina Rantala and ecologist Sari Stark invite you to explore your earth-born nature and imagine other forms of being. What would it feel like if a branch grew from your hand or rock pushed out from your side? What is really happening beneath our feet, and does a fingertip size patch of soil have an ecological significance? Set in the urban environment, the work delves into the importance of all nature and the fundamental role of soil as the support system for everything.

Rantala and Stark have worked together for several years in the multidisciplinary Apart We Shall Perish working group. The group works concretely to support the diversity of soil. In this piece, Rantala seeks bodily connections through one-to-one encounters with people, and together they lead the Soil Walk and the Towards Other Forms of Being workshop.

Down to Earth is part of the SICK! Festival (UK) and Cultural Cooperative ILME’s International Time Travel programme. The journey is created together with people from both Oulu and Manchester, and what is discovered along the way may be different in each city.