About

Trophic Verses (2018–2021) is an artistic exploration into the life and phenomena in and around of Earth's body of soil.

Soil, forming one fourth of Earth's biodiversity, is in key role in the age of climate change. It's biochemical reactions, microbes, fungi and animals determine how oxygen, water, nutritions and organic matter move and affect the life on ground. It is also vulnerable and human action causes many challenges to it's vitality. Only healthy soil can function as a carbon sink, helping to fight global warming. In science, soils phenomena are still largely unrevealed and as they lie beyond straight sense perception, making it a fitting and intriguing field for artistic collaborations, imagination and conceptualization.

Each year the project manifests in different kinds of artistic and curatorial practices, and launches new collaborations with other art, research and environmental initiatives. Art forms include sound art, poetry, bio art, installation art and media art. Works are curated in a modular manner and can form various kinds of entireties.

Permanent partners include Baltic Sea Action Group and Finnish Meteorological Institute as their Carbon Action pilot project acts as a science-sibling to the artistic project. All share the holistic concept of looking into entire ecosystems and understanding their indivisible character.

An art-practice-led doctoral dissertation will be published of the projects outcomes and surrounding discourses at Aalto University.
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Telling Tree art+rsrch, based in Helsinki, Finland, is an art production house and initiative by artist Teemu Lehmusruusu attending to exploring new forms of socially/ecologically impactful artistic practices, transdisciplinary collaborations and artistic research.