In 2023, the artists embarked on a journey into local folklore, sacred sites, and the impact of deforestation. Inspired by the technique of micro-propagation used in forestry, their installation, “Kloonhiis”, was supposed to emerge as a new natural sacred site dedicated to the Maajaam community. It featured clones of tissue from pine trees (Pinus Sylvestris) collected nearby before their scheduled felling. Unfortunately, the plantlets refused to sustain life and so the work itself became an artistic sacrifice on its own.
Natural sacred sites in Estonia have served as a place for spiritual recharge for generations. These sites emerge from a communal urgency and ritual.
“Kloonhiis” is a circular formation resembling a sacred site. The mirror-like plate embodies artificiality contrasting the complexity of nature that defined the project’s final outcome. Test tubes on the surface house dead clones. The seven wooden poles in the ground are placeholders for the plantlets onto which the audience is invited to tie a traditional ribbon to activate the site.
Supported by:
European Capital of Culture Tartu 2024, Cultural Endowment of Estonia
Anna Tamm and Vinzenz Leutenegger is an artist duo that started their collaboration in the Sandberg Instituut with a shared concern about the intersection of ecology and politics. Wild Bits is their first collaborative project where tree cloning and the Estonian context come together.
