Bee Company - Mehiläisten Seura, national representation of Finland at Exhibition of countries and regions at the Prague Quadrennial 2023

Hello, come and meet the Bee Company in Hall no. 11! Bring a jar of your local honey and you’ll get a jar of ours in return! Bee Company’s work poses an ecoscenographic question: what can a multidisciplinary collective learn from non-human ways of living, working and being creative?

Greetings from Tullisaari Park! Bee Company‘s works have a life of their own, even past lives and alternative futures, which makes our art grandiose and dramatic. As soon as we sit down with the genius loci, we are interrupted by force majeure. It happens that a rabbit eats all the zinnias that are essential to the composition on a summer’s night, or that a mouse makes itself at home in a beehive in winter and finally ruins our attempts to become prominent artists.


At the time of writing, our garden is still asleep under the snow. A few brave bees dare to peek out of the hive door, called out by the sun. The situation is dangerous, however, as great tits are on the prowl for unsuspecting bees. We can hardly wait for the snow to melt and for the tulips we rescued from the rubbish in the park last summer to sprout in the Sanctuary garden.


Life in art and gardening is passionate, pulsating, repetitive: full of disappointments and breathtaking beauty. The pleasure it gives comes from slowness, manual labour and fingers in the soil. Warmth is inherent in our work, which combines craftsmanship, gardening and performance art. They share the same passion: the slowness and hands-on approach to life warms the maker and, in the best case, this warmth is conveyed to the viewer too.


The works on display at PQ were made in between work, study and family life, as well as on the way to Prague and at the Quadrennial itself. Our exhibition is slowly taking shape and changing before your eyes. There’s a warmth in working together and getting together, especially when you can get together in a garden or in a tent when it’s raining. Perhaps the most important thing is working, and being, together. Or what do you think?


Best regards,
Aino Aksenja, Ingvill Fossheim, Catharina Kajander & Ina Niemelä

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