Bee Company at PQ23

We were in  Prague Quadrennial last June. Thanks for your visit! Here now or there then.

If you didn’t have a chance to lie on our bed in Prague, you can listen to the audio play Resting home for working women by Aino Aksenja on Soundcloud.

photo Jakub Hrab
photo Jakub Hrab
photo Jakub Hrab
photo Jakub Hrab
photo Jakub Hrab
photo Viktor Tucek
photo Viktor Tucek
photo Jan Hromadko

Works at PQ23   Bee Company

Hexagon, 2021-
Tent, Bee Company’s studio, sculpture: repurposed sails, metal frame, turned midpole

Ina Niemelä

INSIDE THE HEXAGON:

Resting home for working women, 2022
Installation: sound piece, 15:15 min; old iron frame bed; quilt, pillowcase and eye pillow made from old kitchen towels embroidered with initials; fragrant herbs collected from Sanctuary inside the eye pillow
Aino Aksenja
Made in collaboration with the artist’s mother Liisu Vartija

Sanctuary, 2020-
Video documentation, 33:39 min &

47 documentation images, 11x15cm (can be leafed through) of
Living installation: beehives, flower garden and gazebo, and the artists who take care of them / are taken care of by them

Tullisaari Park, Helsinki

Aino Aksenja & Ina Niemelä 

Love first, 2022-
Sculpture: wooden box, beeswax of Tullisaari bees from 2020-2022, pieces of porcelain and glass found in the soil of Tullisaari

Ina Niemelä

Andrena Humilis, 2020
Terracotta vessel, Finnish red clay

Part of the collaborative project Critically Endangered Species

Catharina Kajander

Working outfits of Bee Company, stained and dyed with plants, minerals, soil etc. from Tullisaari park

Ingvill Fossheim

Instax photographs of Bee Company’s journey from Helsinki to Prague by land and sea
Aino Aksenja

Herbs and flowers from the Sanctuary garden, the journey and Prague, including:

  • Nepeta × faassenii / catmint / mirrinminttu
  • Agastache foeniculum / anise hyssop / anisiiso
  • Melissa officinalis / lemon balm / sitruunamelissa
  • Origanum vulgare / oregano / mäkimeirami
  • Salvia officinalis / sage / salvia
  • Salvia nemorosa / woodland sage / lehtosalvia
  • Lavandula / lavender / laventeli
  • Knautia arvensis / field scabious / ruusuruoho
  • Centaurea cyanus / cornflower / ruiskukka
  • Trifolium pratense / red clover / puna-apila
  • Leucanthemum vulgare / ox-eye daisy, dog daisy, etc / päivänkakkara
  • Quercus robur / oak / tammi

Rag rugs on the floor, some from previous spaces of work and of importance to Ina, some made by Aino’s mother Liisu Vartija

OUTSIDE THE HEXAGON:

Gardener’s quilt, 2022
Quilt: recycled cotton fabrics, plant dyed wool
Ina Niemelä

ALSO IN THE SPACE

  • market table from the happening series Laajasalo Grassroots Market (2020-)
  • organza with propolis from the hives
  • skep hat made of Kentucky bluegrass and rattan
  • tent weights of shungite and volcanic rock
  • bunches of oregano from Sanctuary garden
  • Aino’s and Ina’s gardening bags
  • vase gifted to Ina from Aino with a changing arrangement of flowers picked in Prague

…