Grazer Kunstverein moves to the forest
Alma Heikkilä
(Wetzelsdorf)

What if the Grazer Kunstverein moved to a forest? What can we learn from old growth trees and the soil beneath our feet? The artist Alma Heikkilä owns pieces of land that she bought in order to preserve its trees and soil. For our Grazer Kunstverein is moving! event we will hold a talk with the artist to discuss the meaning of untouched land and the preservation of old growth trees. The team of the Grazer Kunstverein will take a hike in the forest of Wetzelsdorf in order to sharpen our senses concerning the interconnectedness of humans, art and ecology.

Alma Heikkilä (born 1984) lives and works in Helsinki. She is a founding member of Mustarinda, a multidisciplinary collective located in the old-growth forests of northern Finland, that hosts residencies at the intersection between art and ecology. Heikkilä graduated from the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts in 2009. She has shown her work in solo exhibitions at Kiasma, Helsinki (2019), Casco Art Institute, Rotterdam (2018), Gallery Ama, Helsinki (2017, 2013), and elsewhere. She has participated in biennials in Fiskars, Finland; Timisoara, Romania; Gwanju, South Korea. She was awarded the Ducat Prize of the Finnish Art Society in 2014. Her work is included in the collections of Kiasma and the Finnish National Gallery.