Catharina Kajander
Category: In English
Honey from Tullisaari
Park/forest/garden/meadow honey from Tullisaari.
Our collective work is interested in artistic work as situated knowledge under the precarious conditions of multispecies livelihoods. This jar can be exchanged for time, conversation, help or money.
Photo Aino Aksenja © 10.10.2020
Bee Company’s honey is urban honey at its best. There are allotments, forest, meadows, gardens, park vegetation, many Salix and Tilias within the radius of 1 km. Especially buzzing were the Frangula alnus bushes in the park. I extracted a set of honey in the beginning of August and due to warm weather a lot more honey was foraged after that, but I decided to leave it for the bees.
Bee Company’s honey won the third price in the harvest fiesta of the Beekeepers of Helsinki. Because there were 14 other contestants with their excellent honeys, I was surprised yet pleased for us. All the honeys awarded were from places with diverse nature.
In the photo above the honey is sitting on the branches of an oak that fell after the Aila storm during the night of the 21st of September, exactly 64 years after the tree was conserved. It’s exact age has not been dated, but it is estimated being approximately 200 years old.
On an arbour day and on my birthday 27th of September, I took part in a tree tour in Tullisaari park organised by The City of Helsinki. For my great joy I was told by the city’s civil servant Elina Nummi, that the tree will be left to decay where it fell as natural memorial. The amount of species in an oak decaying is multiple to a living one. In Helsinki latitudes it may take nearly 20 years for a large oak to decompose completely.
You can find out more about the natural monuments and (officially acknowledged) ecologically important areas in Helsinki from the Nature Information System.
Photo: Aino Aksenja ©
If you are interested in the honey, contact me!
-Ina
Bee Company
We are interested in artistic work as situated knowledge under the precarious conditions of multispecies livelihoods. Particularly sharing lifeworlds and becoming with non-human others. More specifically Apoidea and the practice of beekeeping. Such situated knowledge enables recognition and action on the complex interdependencies of multi-species livelihoods in changing socio-ecological conditions in an epoch characterized by severe environmental disturbances.
The act of slowing down, thinking and performing otherwise are political acts of resistance in the neoliberal work conditions. Our project is a place where possible futures become immediate, as we are unfolding very different planes of thinking about art, artistic practices and art institutions. The Bee Company is deeply connected to the need of doing otherwise; to land onto a new scene and see a ray of light in the lack of prospects; and share this journey in a generous way.
We work collaboratively allowing different kind of voices, interests and contributions. In these precarious conditions we cannot perform in unison, but instead of working alone we have come together in order to unite our forces to occupy space for the bees, our community and ourselves. We will organise gatherings to meet and learn from other residents, artists, scholars and beekeepers.
Our work invites everyone in joyful ecofeminist actions and idleness, with artistic quality and insight, looking all the way down to the materiality of the body and the soil.
Photo: Jussi Virkkumaa / Saaren kartanon residenssi.
Tullisaaren mehiläispesät
Mehiläisten seuralla on tällä hetkellä neljä pesää Tullisaaren puistossa, Laajasalossa. Mehiläisiä hoitaa Ina.
Jos asut pesien lähistöllä ja havaitset:
- pesästä lähteneen parven
- ilkivaltaa
- sinulla on muuta kysyttävää tai haluat jutella
Voit soittaa minulle numeroon 0407175011 (Ina)
Pidän Italialais-suomalaisia lauhkeita tarhamehiläisiä (Apis mellifera ligustica). Kesä 2020 oli rauhallinen ja antoisa. Pesät eivät parveilleet ja voivat mukavasti, vaikka välillä jännitin osaanko tehdä mitään oikein. Jouduin häiritsemään/hoitamaan pesää viikottain, sillä halusin oppia lukemaan emon toimia ja pesän kehitystä paremmin.
Toukokuussa oli muutama kylmä viikko ja pesän kasvu pääsi käyntiin vasta kesäkuun alussa. Kesäkuussa jaoin pesän ja ostin uuden emon Mesimestareilta. Juhannus oli helteinen ja mehiläiset ahkeroivat. Heinäkuun sateet verottivat hunajasatoa. Elokuun alussa otin hunajaa pesistä n. 50 kiloa ja aloitin talviruoan annon.
Tällä hetkellä molemmissa pesissä on uudet kesällä syntyneet emot ja hyvin porukkaa. Punkkilaskennassa löytyi vain muutama punkki. Kesä on ollut huiman kiinnostava ja mehiläiset mukavan lempeitä tällaiselle aloittelevalle tarhaajalle kuin minä.
Ina
Mehiläisten seura valittiin Saaren kartanon residenssiin kesällä 2021
The Bee Company was awarded for Saari Residence in 2021.
In the photo from left to right: Aino Aksenja, Ina Niemelä, Ingvill Fossheim, Marlon Moilanen, Suvi Tuominen. Photo: Jussi Virkkumaa
Muu mehiläisten kanssa tehty taide / Other Art with bees
Mehiläisten seura on osa mehiläisistä inspiroituneiden taiteilijoiden ja työryhmien jatkumoa. We are part of and in relation to the rich art scene inspired by bees and honeybees.
Pienet & tärkeät -lastentanssiesitys
Mario Merz 1925-2003
Joseph Beuys 1921-1986