My summer as a CityTorppari for Syötävä Puisto in Mustikkamaa, Helsinki.
In 2017 I had the perfect opportunity to work as a CityTorppari for the Edible Park in the island of Mustikkamaa. The island is located next to the Korkeasaari Zoo and although it's quite close to central Helsinki, it is far from the stress and noise of urban life.
CityTorppari (roughly translated as a CityCrofter) is an initiative by the Maaseudun sivistysliitto (Association for rural culture and education). The association supports people’s personal growth and creativity as well as an active civil society and the vitality of rural areas. The CityTorppari name has roots in the 1600-1800s when a "torppari" would rent land from a farm in exchange for work. In this case the CityTorppari is an artist that will enliven a nature or a cultural location such as community gardens, outdoor museums or urban parks.
The Edible Park is a community garden open to everyone and what ever the land produced was available for harvesting for the participants of the farming/gardening workshops there.
My work included living in an old croft for almost 4 months, while organizing a once a week cultural cafe, helping with the weekly community gardening workshop, hosting a few artist residencies and just welcoming people to the Edible Park.
The cultural cafe had live music from jazz to argentine folklore, a circus open stage, a poetry cafe, an art exhibition, workshops and even a small movie night. I hosted a few artist residencies, one of them being juggler Sakari Männistö.
My time in the Edible Park was magical and started with a peacock living in the garden for the first two weeks! There's a lot more stories to tell and I will try to get back to it in more detail soon.
Be sure to read more about Syötävä Puisto in my portfolio!