Akantupakilla / Holding Space with Yarrow is a participatory performance combining plant medicine and hydrobodies in steam. It consists of engagement with yarrow through foot baths, meditation and tincture. 

Yarrow is one of the oldest remedies and is considered to heal many illnesses and conditions. The plant itself have ca 150 names in Finnish, all describing its’ different features. The names also connect linguistically to the Baltic Sea area healing culture that is documented in poems and stories.  Holding Space with Yarrow proposes questions such as what may this powerful plant, which many consider merely a weed, mean for us today? How could their voice be heard in human communities?

The artwork premiered and was exhibited in Kunsthalle Turku in Maan Oikeus (Earth Right) -exhibition in 2. – 24.2.2019. In addition to Akantupakilla / Holding Space with Yarrow performance, sound installation Earthling Companion Yarrow was exhibited consisting all the many names of yarrow. Thank you curator Taru Elfving and everyone in Kunsthalle Turku.

Akantupakilla/Holding Space with Yarrow has been performed since eg. in Kunsthalle Seinäjoki (2020),  Untitled festival (2020) in Helsinki as well as part of Rehearsing Hospitalities programme (2019) in Museum of Impossible Forms in Helsinki.