Situated cosmovisions and plant-based knowledge: Pre-exhibition conversation with Anais-karenin
MultiBEING co-organises a public conversation with artist Anais-karenin and art historian Minna Valjakka on 16 October in Helsinki. The event explores plant-based knowledge, healing cosmovisions and the ecological and cultural relations that shape our understandings of the plant world.
Plants and plant-based knowledge have long been part of how worlds are made, understood and inhabited. The worlds of plants, however, have been profoundly shaped by colonialism, particularly through forms of botanical imperialism. Through her multidisciplinary practice, artist Anais-karenin (Japan/Brazil) examines how situated and healing cosmovisions come into relation with modern-colonial systems of knowledge and classification. Her works trace how institutions, scientific classifications and everyday forms of perception shape the ways entities acquire functions, meanings and values within the world.
As part of the exhibition Plant-stones, otherwise at Galleria Sculptor (30.10.–22.11.2026), and in conversation with contemporary art historian Minna Valjakka, Anais-karenin will explore the role of situated cosmovisions in her practice, bringing together perspectives on plants, healing, ecology, sound and language. In relation to Valjakka’s research on plants, knowledge and contemporary arts, the conversation will consider the forms of situated knowledge embedded in Anais-karenin’s work, bringing her engagement with medicinal plants, inherited forms of knowledge, sound and language into dialogue with broader questions of ecological and cultural relations with the plant world.
The conversation is jointly organised by Minna Valjakka’s research project Plants, Knowledge, and Contemporary Arts in East and Southeast Asia (2026–2028), funded by the Kone Foundation, and the Centre of Excellence for Multibeing Justice in Indigenous Societies (MultiBEING, 2026–2033), funded by the Research Council of Finland.
Event details
Date and time: Friday 16 October 2026, 14.00–15.30
Venue: Metsätalo, B302 (Lecture Hall 5), Helsinki
Light refreshments will be served.
Further information
Anais-karenin: https://anaiskarenin.com
Exhibition Plant-stones, otherwise: https://sculptors.fi/exhibition/anais-karenin/
Minna Valjakka’s research project: https://www.minnavaljakka.com/plants-knowledge-and-arts
MultiBEING: https://multibeingjustice.org/
