Flying Seeds – Japanese land art in the Botanical Garden

The Flying Seeds exhibition runs until 11 September.

“We are now up and running, which is wonderful. The artists are internationally established land artists and have a wealth of experience working with public spaces, both in Japan and abroad. They read up on Carl Peter Thunberg and Carl Linnaeus and have been inspired by their works. Linden taken from the Linnaeus Garden will form part of the joint installation”, says Kajsa Haglund, chair of the Artists’ Association of Sweden, Uppland, and one of the exhibition’s curators.

The exhibition is a collaboration between the artists Nobumichi Achi, Hiroshi Kakizaki, Masako Suenaga, Yoko Tamura, Naoko Yako and Ikuo Watanabe from Hokkaido in Japan, five of whom are now on location in Sweden. For many years, they have worked with the project directors Kajsa Haglund and Narek Aghajanyan – both artists themselves. In 2018, the Swedish artists visited Japan, and in 2019 some of the Japanese artists participated in the Crossroads land art exhibition in Österbybruk.

Created on location

Land art is a movement where art is created on location, based on the local conditions and occasionally, using the materials available on site. The sculptures will be on display in the part of the garden that was donated to Uppsala University by King Gustav III in 1787, after the researcher Carl Peter Thunberg suggested it be used as a botanical garden. Carl Peter Thunberg was a student of Carl Linnaeus, and he travelled to countries such as Japan where he collected plants and eventually wrote the first book detailing the country’s flora.

The exhibition’s title, ‘Flying Seeds’ alludes to the role seeds play as representatives for the next generation, for the future. The name also symbolises the seeds that Carl Peter Thunberg collected in Japan at the end of the 18th century, which he then brought with him to the Uppsala Botanical Garden. These seeds sprouted a curiosity about the nation, and contributed to understanding and exchanges between Sweden and Japan.

Renowned for their work

All of the artists contributing to the exhibition are renowned for their work in land art and sculpture. Some of them have also trained in ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arrangement. Using plants from the Linnaean Gardens and Swedish nature, they will now be creating works that will be placed by the water lily pond by the Orangery and around Sorbusplan.

“We will see a mixture of sculptural art in open spaces at the Botanical Garden, and art in close relation to the surrounding environments where nested under a leafy canopy, we can experience the art the trees create,” says Per Erixon, who is in charge of the exhibition at Uppsala Linnaean Gardens.

On 24 May, the Flying Seeds exhibition was opened by Uppsala University’s Vice-Chancellor Anders Hagfeldt in the presence of Mr Koji Tahara, Deputy Head of Mission of the Embassy of Japan. The exhibition will run until 11 September.

The exhibition has been financed by Region Uppsala, Uppsala University, Uppsala municipality and Lilla Japan.