Friday 16^th October 2026, 14:00-15:30, Metsätalo, B302 (lecture hall 5), Unioninkatu 40, University of Helsinki

Light refreshments will be served.

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, 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 organized 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.

For more information: 

on Dr Valjakka’s research: https://www.minnavaljakka.com/plants-knowledge-and-arts

on MultiBEING: https://multibeingjustice.org/