Midwest Land Art Biennial
JUNE - AUGUST 2022
LIST OF PARTICIPATING SITES
LIST OF PARTICIPATING SITES
4Ground: Midwest Land Art Biennial is pleased to announce the participating artists in the inaugural contemporary art festival taking place June-August 2022. Conceived by Franconia Sculpture Park Executive Director & Chief Curator in collaboration with more than 20+ community partners including tribal organizations, art museums, and land conservationists, 4Ground is a far-reaching initiative spanning four states and tribal lands of the Upper Midwest. 4Ground is designed to raise awareness around important land and water issues affecting the region while celebrating the art, land and history of the rural Midwest and boosting tourism of the region through suggested road trips to experience site-specific land art.
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Taking a feminist, indigenous approach, 4Ground draws on the 10,000+ year tradition of Native land art created in the Upper Midwest. Visitors will experience the Driftless Region of southwestern Wisconsin, the scenic bluffs of the St. Croix Valley dividing Wisconsin and Minnesota, and the sprawling prairies, fertile farmland, and glacial lakes dominating most of the region.
4Ground: Midwest Land Art Biennial serves as a fundamental and radical interrogation of place through a rural perspective and an experimental, collaborative approach to art-making and curating through co-creation and authorship.
Central themes that will be explored in 4Ground include: waterways as critical channels for communication and exchange; the re-creation of and education around Native land art that no longer exists (including burial mounds) and raising awareness of areas of historic and Native significance; and crucial environmental issues, particularly in regards to Line 3 Pipeline expansion in the region.
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2022 Farm/Art DTour
Dawn to Dusk
Check the WORMFARM INSTITUTE website for Map of Sites
The biennial Farm/Art DTour returns to Fermentation Fest with trailheads in Plain and Sauk City, WI. A 50-mile, self-guided, multifaceted agritourism experience, the DTour has drawn more than 200,000 visitors from throughout the Midwest to rural Sauk County. Meandering through working farmland, the route is punctuated by site-responsive artworks, pasture performances, roadside poetry, local food markets and artist-led civic engagement.
Inviting thousands to witness what farmers do every day, the DTour supports our region’s farming heritage, using the arts to spark curiosity about, and investment in, the future of farming and land stewardship. At a time when our community’s civic, economic and environmental health depends on bridging the rural-urban divide, this agri/cultural excursion brings people together in the landscape upon which we all depend.
Included in this year’s DTour event is Tory Tepp’s installation included in 4Ground: Midwest Land Art Biennial.
Opening Reception for Laura Youngbird “Mishipechu”
FREE
Join 4Ground: Midwest Land Art Biennial for the opening reception for Laura Youngbird’s installation Mishipechu. Mishipechu is a powerful and important underwater creature. To the Anishinaabe, Ottawa, Menominee, Shawnee and Cree tribes, Mishipechu is also known as the Great Lynx with the head and paws of a great cat, a lizard-like body, covered in scales with spikes along its back and tail. Mishipechu is the embodiment of power with the dual role of protector and destroyer, known for protecting the water and guarding vast amounts of copper. They are said to live in the deepest parts of lakes and rivers, where they can cause storms. There are consequences of misusing resources.
Laura Youngbird is an artist and art educator with a BS, BFA, and MA from Minnesota State University Moorhead with a minor in American Indian Studies. She’s an enrolled member of the Minnesota Chippewa, Grand Portage Band. The themes in her work originated from experiences her family and particularly her grandmother had while at boarding schools and issues that surrounded their assimilation into non-Indian culture. Laura also explores the influences of Christianity on American Indian Spirituality and life views.
Closing Reception and Workshops for Ruth Burke’s “Domestic Rewilding”
FREE
Join 4Ground artist Ruth Burke at ACRE as they lay the final seed/text blocks in their 200’ walking path created with native/pollinator-friendly plants. Volunteers can help put on the finishing touches of this land artwork that was created through collaborative interspecies labor using animal-powered cultivation practices. Burke will have takeaways for participants including seed bombs and take-home baggies of killer compost!
4Ground Closing Reception at Franconia 26th Annual Art & Artists Celebration
FREE
Parking: $5/Car
Franconia Sculpture Park’s annual “Art & Artists Celebration” is its largest community event of the year and the official closing of the inaugural 4Ground: Midwest Land Art Biennial. Please join Franconia staff, board and our 2022 Artists-in-Residence for an afternoon and evening of not-to-be-missed art and performances. Parking during the event is $5/car and all events are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted.*
12pm-1pm: Land Art Tour by Franconia’s Executive Director & Chief Curator
Join Franconia’s Executive Director & Chief Curator Ginger Shulick Porcella as she gives a guided-tour of the land art featured in the inaugural 4Ground: Midwest Land Art Biennial at the park. The tour will start at the entrance to Franconia Commons.
1pm-2pm: Artwork Unveiling of Imprinted Wave #1 with Ryan Fontaine and musical guests Reflectors
2022 Visiting Artist Ryan Fontaine is pleased to unveil Imprinted Wave #1 (Magenta b/w Black Carpet). The opening celebration will include a musical performance by ambient musicians Reflectors (Crystal Myslajek & John Marks) to inaugurate the sculpture. Fontaine’s Imprinted Wave series of sculptures are modeled on the elegant pattern of the wave – movement, light, sound, and energy.
2pm-4pm: Hands-on Artmaking Workshops & “Meet & Greet” with 2022 Franconia Artists-in-Residence
Join Franconia on the front lawn for free artmaking workshops inspired by our annual theme of “Land Art & Temporality” and meet some of the 2022 artists responsible for creating the work at the park!
3pm-5pm: Opening Reception for Tornado on the Map in the Mardag Gallery at Franconia Commons
Franconia Sculpture Park is pleased to present Tornado on the Map, a group exhibition featuring the work of Interact Gallery artists Daniel Metchnek, David Wright, and Matt Zimdars. This exhibition presents Metchenk’s ceramic animals alongside Wright’s whimsical drawings and Zimdars’ WCCO series, a diligent recording of WCCO severe weather reports in the Midwest over the course of several years.
4pm-4:30pm: Performance by DSAMN’s “The Group”
Join artists and performers from the Down Syndrome Association as they create a new, site-responsive work inspired by the Interact exhibition Tornado on the Map. This work will start in the gallery space and move to the outdoor gathering area behind Franconia Commons.
4:30-5pm: Mural Unveiling for FSP Artist Billboard Project with Thomasina TopBear
Join members of the Twin Cities art community for the unveiling of the latest FSP Artist Billboard designed by Thomasina TopBear, a self-taught Santee Dakota & Oglala Lakota muralist. TopBear has been a member of the international all female street art crew Few & Far Women since 2015 and helped found City Mischief Murals, an all-BIPOC mural collective that actively paints large scale community-based murals in the Twin Cities. Thomasina’s inspirations come from her Indigenous culture and graffiti style type lettering, using these influences to express her feelings on community, social justice, culture, feminism, and togetherness.
5pm-6pm: Mexican Institute of Sound in Franconia’s Amphitheatre*
Mexican Institute of Sound (MIS) is an electronic music project created by Mexico City-based DJ and producer Camilo Lara. MIS is part of a growing Mexican electronica movement, encouraging fusions of folk and more traditional music with modern sounds.
Lara’s work has landed him a Grammy and 4 Latin Grammy nominations, and he has produced artists ranging from Los Angeles Azules (scoring the best-selling Mexican album of the last 25 years, 8 times diamond certified sales), Norah Jones, and Band of Horses. He has collaborated with a wide range of artists including Toots and the Maytals, Gogol Bordello, and Tom Tom Club. He hosts his own radio station on the best-selling game of all time, Grand Theft Auto V. He was the musical consultant for Pixar’s Coco where he even had a cameo, and his music has been featured in Narcos, Breaking Bad, Y Tu Mama Tambien, Californication, and Ugly Betty to name a few. Spanish newspaper El Pais named Lara as one of the “50 Most Influential People in Latin America” and Quien Magazine named him one of the “50 People Who are Transforming Mexico.”
The concert is free with admission; $25 tickets include two free drink tickets and a post-show “meet and greet” with Mexican Institute of Sound. Tickets can be purchased at: www.franconia.org
6:15-7pm: Fire Drilling performance by Marcela Torres and Izayo Mazehualli
Fire Drilling is a choreographic work that explores Latinx relationships to tobacco. Marcela Torres and collaborator Izayo Mazehaulli tell a narrative that meanders between rituals honoring the Aztec deity Tezcatlipoca through forms of Mexican dance, beat and smoke that reflects on the power and reverence of fire and ash. The Fire Drilling ceremony defines a new queer embodiment and marks the evolution of our ongoing relationship with our plant parents to honor their inherent spiritual entities. Made with support of the Chicago Dance Maker Forum, Lab Artist Program, music by LA Spacer. This work will employ aromas and smoke as the main character; please be aware if you have allergies that you may want to wear a mask or be seated farther from the stage.
7pm-7:30pm: Projections by Jody Joyner and Wesley Fawcett Creigh
Convene behind Franconia Commons for two projection mapping projects by previous Franconia Visiting Artists Jody Joyner and Wesley Creigh. Joyner’s “Infinite Lawn” installation was commissioned for the inaugural 4Ground: Midwest Land Art Biennial, and Creigh’s sculpture “The Invisible Line” serves as a projection surface for a short animated film from the series “Love in the Time of Migra”.
7:30pm-9:30pm: Quinn Tessential Presents an Evening of Drag with Jenna Cis, Luc Ami, Myster’EO Cassadine and more!
Join Quinn Tessential for an evening of drag, focusing on platforming performers of color, AFAB artists, kings, and alternative drag artists.
Limited seating is available; $25 tickets guarantee front-row seating, two free drink tickets, and a post-show “meet-and-greet” with the performers. Tickets can be purchased at: www.franconia.org
Salsa Spot and MN Nice Cream will have food trucks on-site during the event. A variety of beverages will be available for purchase, including beer by Eastlake Craft Brewery and wine from Alexis Bailly Vineyards.
Autumn Equinox Observance (Copy)
$5.00 admission when using code “4GROUND”
Join Kinstone for the closing celebration of Wang Ping and Joe Lerro’s installation for the 4Ground: Midwest Land Art Biennial entitled “Kinship of Rivers: We Are One Family”. This interactive installation celebrates our connections with land, air, water, and communities. We will build “Growing Family,” a black locust structure hosting beans and prayer flags of art and poetry made by visitors, symbolizing growth, vitality and harmony. Black locust and beans, both in the Leguminosae family, fix and store nitrogen in the soil. The project grows with seasons: building the structure and installing flags in spring; sowing beans, celebrating blossoms, shade and fruit of the beans, art and poetry in summer; harvesting seeds and flags in autumn to continue the cycle of life and our hope for peace.
Started in 2012, Kinship of Rivers brings communities, rivers and lands together through prayer flags of art, poetry and prints. Thousands of these prayer flags will be displayed at three events at Kinstone, carrying messages of unity from the Yangtze, Amazon, Ganges, and Nile Rivers, Mounts Everest, Kilimanjaro and other sacred places. Visitors can make prayer flags during events or at the open art station, as a pledge to promote peace and protect air, soil and water. These will join the world prayer flags, broadcasting peace and unity as one Growing Family.
The closing celebration will include an artist talk with Wang Ping and Joe Lerro, stories and readings, and Native drumming and singing with Alvin “Al” Baker.
Autumn Equinox Observance
$5.00 admission when using code “4GROUND”
Join Kinstone in the center of The Three Witnesses sculpture as we watch the sun as it crests the ridge and beams through the Equinox Window to light up the heart of the middle standing stone, known as the “Heart Stone”. Given cloudy weather, we will not see the sunrise but will greet it ceremoniously regardless.
This will be a quiet, meditative event with a short opening rite and reading. After the reading, if the sun is visible, participants may wish to watch the alignment through the Equinox Window, see the heart highlighted in the center stone Witness, sit in the light of the sun, take photos, and greet the sunrise.
Art at The Acreage
FREE, tickets
Join The Acreage and 4Ground on September 17th for the annual “Art at the Acreage” event. Explore the incredible intersection between nature and art. Wander through pollinator meadows, and wildlife habitat restoration, and experience the diverse collection of art and sculptures at The Acreage.
Experiences
• Gallery exhibit featuring: Pleinair Paintings of the Acreage by Joseph Paquet and photographs of the animals at The Acreage by Glenn Ronning
• 4Ground land art installation by Tom Bierlein
• Underwater photos of the St. Croix River by Northwest Passage students
• Meet with experts from the Pollinator Friendly Alliance
• Visit ArtReach Mobile Art Gallery featuring local St. Croix Valley artists
• Learn from local, on-site beekeepers from Bone Lake Meadows Apiary
• Food truck from BF Kitchens
Kinections through Art & Poetry
$5.00-$10.00 suggested donation plus admission to Kinstone (use the code 4GROUND upon entry to get 50% discount on admission)
Every First Friday, May through October, join Kinstone to create prayer flags that will become part of our “Growing Family” art installation for 4Ground: Midwest Biennial Land Art Biennial. We welcome Valerie Savage and Shannon McHone as our leaders who will be present to assist with supplies and ideas and to provide basic guidance.
Meet inside the Education Center where we will have paper, fabric, paints, markers, and other supplies for creative expression including making prayer flags and other art and poetry. Feel free to bring any personal art supplies you may wish to use.
Artist Talk with Torey Erin
FREE
Join artist Torey Erin as she discusses her project for 4Ground: Midwest Land Art Biennial, “Love Letters to the Earth.” Working together with Growing Together and the World Garden, participants were invited to write a love letter or message to the earth on seed paper, and with the help of Torey planted their letter in the garden which was nurtured and grown over the course of the summer.
Rewilding Valley Creek at Belwin Conservancy and opening reception for David Sprecher’s “Roaming Stone”
FREE
Join Belwin Conservancy and artist David Sprecher for the official opening reception for their latest work for 4Ground: Midwest Land Art Biennial, entitled Roaming Stone. Roaming Stone takes an impression of the land at Belwin Conservancy that bears the signature of the prairie's most skilled caretakers, the American bison, and translates the impression onto the surface of a large sphere. The inscription of the land that it holds can be recalled by rolling it, the way sound can be recalled by turning a record. The inverted tracks will bring to mind all the ways the bison maintain the health of the prairie ecosystem through their erratic roaming, their grazing, and wallowing. Wrapping the impression of the land around a sphere, an object that rolls freely in any direction reflects how the bison pick up and deposit microbes and seeds as they roam. In its ability to infinitely reproduce its impression of the soil, Roaming Stone becomes a piece of DNA that honors the persistent regeneration of life imprinting itself on the land.
Participants will visit a woodland that contains a significant portion of Valley Creek and hear from local historians Dr. Kate Thomas, Jean Huelster, and Sherri Buss about the people who have lived alongside it. Artist Rachel Frank will present “Rewilding Valley Creek,” a participatory performance that will highlight Belwin Conservancy’s restoration of the landscape through the seasonal use of bison and their ongoing stewardship of the land through celebrating the woodland that contains a significant section of Valley Creek. For the last ten years, Frank has worked on projects that explore rewilding–the environmental practice of reintroducing species back to areas where they had formerly thrived to help restore ecosystems. Participants will be invited to give a water offering with ceramic rhyton vessels, gestures that connect to Belwin and the surrounding Afton community’s commitment to the rewilding of Valley Creek.
Additionally, this event will include The Longest Poem for the Longest River (in North America). Join poets from across the Mississippi River in a collective, multilingual creative writing experience for the one and only Mississippi River. This project brings the Mississippi to the public beyond its banks, inspiring real-talk conversations about our relationships to water and the river. All ages and languages are welcome. Presented by, Angie Tillges, Moheb Soliman, and Monique Verdin.
David Sprecher is an artist and educator living in Chicago. He received a BFA in printmaking from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2006 and an MFA from the Art Theory and Practice program at Northwestern University in 2016. He teaches sculpture at the Chicago Academy of the Arts and integrates art education into primary schools through the Chicago Arts Partnership in Education. In 2020 he co-founded the design collective Essay. His work has been exhibited internationally.
Born and raised in Kentucky, Rachel Frank received her BFA from The Kansas City Art Institute and her MFA from The University of Pennsylvania. Recent solo and two-person exhibitions include MOCA Tucson (AZ), the SPRING/BREAK Art Show (NYC), Thomas Hunter Projects at Hunter College (NYC), Standard Space (Sharon, CT), and Geary Contemporary (NYC). Residencies include Yaddo, Marie Walsh Sharpe, The Museum of Arts and Design, Skowhegan, the Innoko National Wildlife Refuge (Alaska), Franconia Sculpture Park, Socrates Sculpture Park, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tucson. Her performance pieces have been shown at HERE, Socrates Sculpture Park, The Select Fair, and The Bushwick Starr in New York City, The Marran Theater at Lesley University, and at The Watermill Center in collaboration with Robert Wilson. Currently, she has public artworks on view at Franconia and Socrates Sculpture Parks.
Angie Tillges is a civic project manager, artist and educator who is skilled at working with public institutions and community organizations on projects of social, artistic, ecological and educational importance. Currently she is the Great River Passage Fellow with the City of St. Paul where she leads projects that provide people the opportunity to make personal and lasting connections with one another and with public and natural spaces in their communities. She is co-founder of Wayfinding, and her current focus is on water, culture, and community/civic relationship.
Moheb Soliman is an interdisciplinary poet from Egypt and the Midwest. He’s presented writing, performance, installation, and video work at diverse literary, art, and public spaces in the US and Canada with support from the Banff Centre, Pillsbury House, Joyce Foundation, Minnesota State Arts Board, and the Tulsa Artist Fellowship.
Monique Verdin is an interdisciplinary storyteller who has intimately documented the complex interconnectedness of environment, culture, climate and change in southeast Louisiana. Monique is director of the Land Memory Bank & Seed Exchange, a former member of the United Houma Nation Tribal Council and is part of the Another Gulf Is Possible Collaborative core leadership circle of brown (indigenous, latinx and desi) women, from Texas to Florida, working to envision just economies, vibrant communities and sustainable ecologies.
An Afternoon of Sound, Scent & Performance at Franconia
$5.00 Parking
Join Franconia for an afternoon celebrating the sights, sounds, and smells of summer through the unique lens of artists working in various media. As part of the 4Ground: Midwest Land Art Biennial, this event allows participants to have a deeper engagement with the various land artworks and artists participating in this multi-state event celebrating art, nature, and our relationship with the land.
12:00pm-4:00pm - Climate Chaser Backyard Phenology
Join Christine Bauemler, Christian Bell, and Maria Park for a “Sharing Climate Change” storytelling event in the University of Minnesota’s “Climate Chaser” recording studio!
12:00pm-1:00pm – A tour of Land Art at Franconia with 4Ground Curator
Convene at Franconia Commons for a special tour of all the Land Art at Franconia created for the 4Ground: Midwest Land Art Biennial.
12:00pm-1:00pm – Beekeeping Workshop with Bone Lake Meadows Apiary
Join Mike Mackiewicz from Bone Lake Meadows Apiary in the Driscoll Education Center at Franconia Commons for a brief tutorial on beekeeping. Participants will then visit Franconia's hives and meet our bees-in-residence up close. Courtesy of Compeer Financial.
1:00pm-1:30pm - Unveiling and activation of “City Lights Orchestra” by Andy Graydon
Gather on the back patio of Franconia Commons for the official opening of “City Lights Orchestra by Andy Grandon, an artist and filmmaker originally from Hawai’i. His work is concerned with natural and social cologies, and with sound and listening as creative practices. “City Lights Orchestra” will be on display at Franconia through 2024; functioning as both sculptural assemblage and collective instrument, the work is a sculpture-in-the-making, an ongoing composition performed in both structure and sound.
1:30-2:30pm - Field Recording and Soundwalk with Nick Chatfield-Taylor
Convene at Franconia Commons for a soundwalk through Franconia with artist Nick Chatfield-Taylor. Participants will attune to the natural sounds of Franconia through mindful listening exercises and have an opportunity to create their own field recordings that can be incorporated into future sound works at Franconia.
2:30pm-3:30pm - Scent Walk with Alex Young and Lindsey french
Join 4Ground Artists Alex Young and Lindsey french as they return to Franconia after their 2000-kilometer journey of the Line 3 pipeline from Alberta to Superior where they deposited scent poems created at Franconia along the pipeline’s margins via ceramic vessels. Now, they offer a new form of attunement–not only to the airborne signals of plants, but the ways we are already participating in airborne signaling with the environment through scent walks and olfactory experience of the pipeline’s petro signals.
3:30-4:00pm - Rewilding the Prairie with Rachel Frank
Franconia is pleased to bring Rachel Frank back to Franconia as part of 4Ground for a series of participatory performances. “Rewilding the Prairie” will highlight Franconia’s role in the restoration of the prairie through preservation and traditional land management practices. Participants will be invited to use a ceramic rhyton vessel to symbolically rewild the landscape with an offering of water. This performance will also connect with Frank’s sculpture currently installed within the prairie grasses at the park, Pollinator Rhyton: Agave and Bats.
Self-guided tour
FREE
The Acreage at Osceola is open to the public to explore and experience Tom Bierlein’s land art installation, Time was like water, but I was the sea. Enjoy a self-guided tour on walking paths to the installation. 4Ground visitors are asked to check-in and check-out at The Gallery upon arrival and departure.
Tom Bierlein is a Minneapolis-based sculptor and gardener cultivating spaces to encourage awareness within our environment. These spaces, simultaneously sculptures, gardens, and architecture, elevate the relationships between viewer, material, and place, showing the world not as a singular thing but as a series of ongoing relationships. Holding a B.F.A. from Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Tom has created public works at Franconia Sculpture Park, Belwin Conservancy, and has exhibited at Silverwood Park and with the Art Shanty Projects.
Observe & Draw Together with Kelley Meister
FREE
On Sunday, August 14, Kelley Meister (pronouns: ze/hir) will host an informal gathering for others to join hir in looking closely at the ecosystem around Bdé Sihá Háŋska (Pickerel Lake) lying adjacent to the Wakpa Tanka / Gitchi Ziibi / Mississippi River. From 2-4pm, come anytime to sit and draw. Bring a camera, drawing materials, something to sit on (if desired) and water/snacks for yourself. We will be looking closely at the plants and small creatures of the habitat, creating a document of their lives in this location on this date, to be added to the Meister's ongoing visual database at hotzone.kelleymeister.com of the 100-mile Ingestion Pathway Zone around the 2 nuclear power plants in MN at Prairie Island and Monticello. This workshop accompanies Meister's sculptural installation around Bdé Sihá Háŋska (Pickerel Lake) that will be up for the month of August 2022, as part of the 4Ground: Midwest Land Art Biennial.
BONUS: Experience Meister's installation from the waters - bring your own kayak or other non-motorized vessel or rent one on site. While visiting, be sure to check out Marlena Myles' nearby augmented reality works at Bdóte (confluence of the Minnesota & Mississippi Rivers), Fort Snelling, Oȟéyawahe (Pilot Knob), Uŋči Makha Park (Highland Bridge development), Minnehaha Falls, Mniówe Sní (Cold Water Springs) just up and downstream from Bdé Sihá Háŋska (Pickerel Lake).
“Observe & Draw Together” is a small, informal gathering to look closely at the plants and sessile (limited movement and/or immobile) creatures (e.g., bugs, insects, macroinvertebrates, etc.) in and near the river. Scavenger hunt zines, pencils, and hand lenses will be provided.
Film @ Franconia - Last and First Men
$5.00 Parking
Franconia’s monthly summer film series takes place outside in Franconia’s amphitheater. Films highlight the best in art films, past and present, with 2022 films focused on the intersection of Art & Ecology in celebration of 4Ground: Midwest Land Art Biennial.
The August Film @ Franconia screening is “Last and First Men,” a 2020 Icelandic science fiction film directed by Jóhann Jóhannsson in his posthumous feature film directorial debut. Two billion years in the future, humanity finds itself on the verge of extinction. Almost all that is left in the world are lone and surreal monuments, beaming their message into the wilderness.
Throat-singing with Taiquaa//Ambe Omaa - ayaga//babaami-ayaa (to travel around) (Copy)
FREE
ayaga//babaami-ayaa (to travel around) is a series of land-based performances incorporating original compositions of Pic-eine’rkin throat-singing, textile, storytelling, and visual symbols across the Midwest. Throat-singing artistic duo Taiquaa//Ambe Omaa will travel from Rochester to Afton to Fargo in a northwest direction as a subversion of Manifest Destiny that pushed Natives past the Mississippi and beyond. It further mirrors the journey inland of Anishinaabeg from wabanaki/east coast to find the-food-that-grows-on-the-water - manoomin/wild rice - and westward Yup’ik migration from Alaska to Siberia.
Keeping with these generational traditions, artists will bring only what they can carry or pull along travois for each installation. Artists will work with site organizers and Mdewakanton Dakhóta and Wahpekute Dakhóta community members to understand the colonial and Indigenous lifeways of each site, and plan their bundles accordingly: bringing what they need to survive and thrive from the land - furs for ceremony, food and medicine baskets, bedrolls, sewing and trapping supplies, bagamaagan for protection, and seeds - to create a temporary living space at each site.
After making camp, artists will engage in an original throat singing performance with sounds inspired from regional life both in appreciation of the site and acknowledging the art form’s survival origins as many Native communities were forced to make camp and wait for government rations that would often never come, a genocide by attrition like Minnesota’s Sandy Lake Tragedy. Songs will feature collaborative composition and audience participation. Artists will then break camp, leaving the scrim and frame as a gentle reminder of presence.
Taiquaa//Ambe Omaa (nibiiwakamigkwe & Anastasia Adams) Taiquaa//Ambe Omaa (come here) is a collaboration of Yup’ik, Michif, and Anishinaabe lifeways imbued with connection to land, community, and place. Anastasia Adams (she/her) is a Yup’ik composer, vocalist, choreographer, educator, and textile artist focusing on themes of reconnection, velvet genocide, and Native joy. Utilizing her classical vocal training and oral tradition teachings, she subverts musical expectations of both Western and Native genres while prioritizing audience involvement and sense of connection to a piece. Her evolving work shifts into Indigenous science systems and their balance with Indigenous art practice. nibiiwakamigkwe (they/them/awi) is an ohkwa:lí (bear clan) Onyota'a:ka (Oneida), waabizheshi (marten clan) Anishinaabe (Ojibwe), Michif (Métis), and waabishkiiwed Two-Spirit artist and organizer working in traditional Indigenous craftwork and contemporary Woodlands style to foster awareness of land protection, Indigenous cultural landscapes, and the complexity of identity with much of their work acknowledging the integration of land sovereignty, food sovereignty, language sovereignty, and art sovereignty with all reliant upon the others for continued existence. Raised on Anishinaabewaki (northern Wisconsin), their art practice is structured to traditional land use which has branched into written and oral advocacy for varied publications and institutions. They remain committed to traditional methods of protection and care with jingle dress dancing, traditional farming, and ceremony both in practice and education. Together, nibiiwakamigkwe and Anastasia’s combined art practices re-establish Indigenous art as social practice, relying on the lands, histories and understandings of community to create and inform artistic endeavors.
“Adopt a Landscape” with Alexander Bustamante at Franconia Art & Farmers Market
FREE
$5.00 Parking (suggested)
Visit Franconia Sculpture Park for its monthly “Art & Farmers Market” where a variety of fresh produce and handmade crafts are available from 30 vendors. This month’s event will feature 4Ground artist Alexander Bustamante’s “Adopt-a-Landscape” booth from 10am-2pm and a variety of workshops and performances.
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
10am-2pm – Art & Farmers Market featuring “Adopt-A-Landscape” with Alexander Bustamante
12-2pm – Durational performance utilizing household chairs by Kim Zumpfe in collaboration with their sculpture “framing of a space that waits” currently being created at Franconia. Intended to be viewed by drivers, you can best witness the performance at the 8/95 roundabout on your way to or from Franconia.
2-3pm – Beekeeping Workshop with Bone Lake Meadows Apiary. Meet in front of the building to learn the basics of beekeeping from Franconia’s master beekeeper Mike Mackiewicz. Sponsored by Compeer Financial.
3-4 pm — Tour with Renée Reizman. What will happen to Franconia Sculpture Park 100 years from now? Renée Reizman leads a speculative tour through the park that reimagines Franconia's future in the era of climate change.
Kinections through Art & Poetry
$5.00-$10.00 suggested donation plus admission to Kinstone (use the code 4GROUND upon entry to get 50% discount on admission)
Every First Friday, May through October, join Kinstone to create prayer flags that will become part of our “Growing Family” art installation for 4Ground: Midwest Biennial Land Art Biennial. We welcome Valerie Savage and Shannon McHone as our leaders who will be present to assist with supplies and ideas and to provide basic guidance.
Meet inside the Education Center where we will have paper, fabric, paints, markers, and other supplies for creative expression including making prayer flags and other art and poetry. Feel free to bring any personal art supplies you may wish to use.
Throat-singing with Taiquaa//Ambe Omaa
FREE
RSVP Here (required)
Belwin Conservancy welcomes Taiquaa//Ambe Omaa (nibiiwakamigkwe & Anastasia Adams) for ayaga//babaami-ayaa (to travel around), a series of land-based performances incorporating original compositions of Pic-eine’rkin throat-singing, textile, storytelling, and visual symbols across the Midwest. Throat-singing artistic duo Taiquaa//Ambe Omaa will travel from Rochester to Afton to Fargo in a northwest direction as a subversion of Manifest Destiny that pushed Natives past the Mississippi and beyond. It further mirrors the journey inland of Anishinaabeg from wabanaki/east coast to find the-food-that-grows-on-the-water - manoomin/wild rice - and westward Yup’ik migration from Alaska to Siberia.
Keeping with these generational traditions, artists will bring only what they can carry or pull along travois for each installation. Artists will work with site organizers and Mdewakanton Dakhóta and Wahpekute Dakhóta community members to understand the colonial and Indigenous lifeways of each site, and plan their bundles accordingly: bringing what they need to survive and thrive from the land - furs for ceremony, food and medicine baskets, bedrolls, sewing and trapping supplies, bagamaagan for protection, and seeds - to create a temporary living space at each site.
After making camp, artists will engage in an original throat singing performance with sounds inspired from regional life both in appreciation of the site and acknowledging the art form’s survival origins as many Native communities were forced to make camp and wait for government rations that would often never come, a genocide by attrition like Minnesota’s Sandy Lake Tragedy. Songs will feature collaborative composition and audience participation. Artists will then break camp, leaving the scrim and frame as a gentle reminder of presence.
Live! From North Woods and Waters of the St. Croix Heritage Area
FREE Online Event
Register
Join Franconia Sculpture Park Executive Director Ginger Shulick Porcella in discussion with several artists, ecologists, and performers working along the St. Croix River Valley this summer as part of the 4Ground: Midwest Land Art Biennial. This online program celebrates the cultures, people, and natural beauty of the watershed. Presenters include: Rachel Frank, Stephanie Lindquist, nibiiwakamigkwe, Anastasia Adams, Angela Tillges, and Moheb Soliman.
Wool-Seeding of Ruth Burke’s Domestic Rewilding
FREE
Public participation encouraged
Join 4Ground artist Ruth Burke at ACRE as they mix and install the wool-seeding mixture at ACRE for their upcoming project, “Domestic Rewilding”. Their team of oxen will be on-site, and volunteers are encouraged to bring gloves, gardening hand tools, and sun protection. Help create this land artwork through collaborative interspecies labor using animal-powered cultivation practices, culminating in the creation of a 200’ walking path with native/pollinator-friendly plants.
Tory Tepp Opening Reception and Artist Talk
FREE
Join Wormfarm Institute and 4Ground: Midwest Land Art Biennial for the opening reception of artist Tory Tepp’s Vortex to a Future Canoe this Friday, July 22, 5:30-6:30 pm at the historic Witwen Park. There will be an artist talk, earthly music & fermented beverages!
Vortex to a Future Canoe is a site-responsive, spiraling earthwork conceived as a bridge through time and place. Created by artist ToryTepp, this land art made of soil, repurposed barn wood, white birch trees & native plants will continue to evolve through this year’s FarmArtDTour!
Tory Tepp’s work has broadly focused on exploring and reestablishing metaphysical connections between social and environmental ecologies that shape communities. His most recent work focuses on the intersection of land art, agriculture, and eco-literacy. He received his BFA in painting from Parson’s, the New School for Design in New York City. In 2009, he earned his MFA in public practice as part of the inaugural class of Suzanne Lacy’s Public Practice program at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles. After a temporary relocation to New Orleans, Tory assumed the role of the driver of a vintage armored car for Mel Chin’s Fundred Dollar Bill Project and proceeded on a 19,000-mile journey around the country representing the project. This led to the development of an itinerant art practice that kept him on the road, working from project to project, in New Orleans, Milwaukee, Los Angeles, Death Valley, Colorado, and the High Sierra Mountains. He currently splits his time between Sauk County, Wisconsin, and the Tampa Bay area in Florida.
Dakota Spirit Walk with Marlena Myles
$10.00 Tickets
Purchase HERE
Join Franconia in St. Paul for "Dakota Spirit Walk", a permanent, augmented reality public art installation that honrs, educates, and connects visitors to Dakota history, culture and significance of land through the art and storytelling of Marlena Myles, Spirit Lake Dakota. The artist will be present to discuss the development of this project and their upcoming work for 4Ground: Midwest Land Art Biennial at Indian Mounds Park.
Self-guided Tour
FREE
The Acreage at Osceola is open to the public to explore and experience Tom Bierlein’s land art installation, Time was like water, but I was the sea. Enjoy a self-guided tour on walking paths to the installation. 4Ground visitors are asked to check-in and check-out at The Gallery upon arrival and departure.
Tom Bierlein is a Minneapolis-based sculptor and gardener cultivating spaces to encourage awareness within our environment. These spaces, simultaneously sculptures, gardens, and architecture, elevate the relationships between viewer, material, and place, showing the world not as a singular thing but as a series of ongoing relationships. Holding a B.F.A. from Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Tom has created public works at Franconia Sculpture Park, Belwin Conservancy, and has exhibited at Silverwood Park and with the Art Shanty Projects.
Film @ Franconia - Through the Repellent Fence
$5.00 Parking
TBA post-screening talk with Postcommodity
Franconia’s monthly summer film series takes place outside in Franconia’s amphitheatre. Films highlights the best in art films, past and present, with 2022 films focused on the intersection of Art & Ecology in celebration of 4Ground: Midwest Land Art Biennial.
July’s Film @ Franconia program features a special screening of Through the Repellent Fence in partnership with Bockley Gallery, as well as a post-screening talk with filmmakers and Postcommodity. Through the Repellent Fence follows art collective Postcommodity as they strive to construct “Repellent Fence,” a two-mile long outdoor artwork that straddled the US/Mexico border.
Future Fossil Finders
Downtown Fergus Falls between Court Street and Union Avenue
FREE
The Lakes Area Precious Plastics Lab and Springboard for the Arts are excited to announce “Future Fossils,” a set of three temporary art installations designed and created by local artists in the Lakes Area Precious Plastics Lab which will be installed along the Fergus Falls Riverwalk between June 24 and September 1, 2022.
Each site, located between Court and Cascade Streets along the Fergus Falls downtown Riverwalk, will invite residents and visitors to consider our responsibilities to the land and to one another going forward. The sculptures, which include depictions of both real and mythical creatures, are intended to create an element of mystery and surprise along the riverwalk, and encourage reflection and conversation about our relationship to the land and to one another.
Featured Artists are Nancy Valentine (Fergus Falls), Chelsey Beilhartz (Fergus Falls), Laura Youngbird Breckenridge), Katy Olson (Fergus Falls), Erik Peterson (Alexandria), Jess Torgerson (Fergus Falls), and Erika Smith (Elbow Lake).
On Saturday, July 16, families with kids of all ages are invited to meet the artists involved with Future Fossils, pick up an interactive Future Fossils Field Guide at the Farmer’s Market, and complete a creative activity at each installation for a small prize to take home. Please contact Springboard for questions or accommodation needs (218) 998-4037.
Sound Healing Performance with Simiya Sudduth
$10.00 Tickets
Purchase HERE
Join Franconia Artist-in-Residence Simiya Sudduth for a healing sound bath outside at the park. Simiya is a mother, multidisciplinary artist, and wellness practitioner, currently living in St. Louis, MO. She maintains a fluid creative practice influenced by her work as a wellness practitioner, that explores the intersections of health, wellness, ecology, social justice, and spirituality. Simiya's expansive creative practice ranges from creating illustrations to artist-farming, installation, and experimental sound healing performances.
Future Fossils Artist Talk and Precious Plastics Demo
4 - 8 pm Precious Plastics Demo
5 - 6 pm Artist Walk and Talk
FREE
The Lakes Area Precious Plastics Lab and Springboard for the Arts are excited to announce “Future Fossils,” a set of three temporary art installations designed and created by local artists in the Lakes Area Precious Plastics Lab which will be installed along the Fergus Falls Riverwalk between June 24 and September 1, 2022.
Each site, located between Court and Cascade Streets along the Fergus Falls downtown Riverwalk, will invite residents and visitors to consider our responsibilities to the land and to one another going forward. The sculptures, which include depictions of both real and mythical creatures, are intended to create an element of mystery and surprise along the riverwalk, and encourage reflection and conversation about our relationship to the land and to one another.
Featured Artists are Nancy Valentine (Fergus Falls), Chelsey Beilhartz (Fergus Falls), Laura Youngbird (Breckenridge), Katy Olson (Fergus Falls), Erik Peterson (Alexandria), Jess Torgerson (Fergus Falls), and Erika Smith (Elbow Lake).
An opening reception, precious plastics demo, and artist “walk and talk” will take place on Thursday, July 14th. Demos will take place from 4 - 8pm, with an artist walk and talk leaving from Springboard at 5pm. Please contact Springboard for questions or accommodation needs (218)998-4037.
Bill Mitchell Artist Talk & Tour
FREE
Join Osprey Wilds and artist Bill Mitchell for an artist talk and tour of their work for 4Ground: Midwest Land Art Biennial entitled Loop 1, an installation that straddles the periphery of forest where trees communicate and grassland where soil is alive and all things are interconnected.
Kinections through Art & Poetry
$5.00-$10.00 suggested donation plus admission to Kinstone (use the code 4GROUND upon entry to get 50% discount on admission)
Every First Friday, May through October, join Kinstone to create prayer flags that will become part of our “Growing Family” art installation for 4Ground: Midwest Biennial Land Art Biennial. We welcome Valerie Savage and Shannon McHone as our leaders who will be present to assist with supplies and ideas and to provide basic guidance.
Meet inside the Education Center where we will have paper, fabric, paints, markers, and other supplies for creative expression including making prayer flags and other art and poetry. Feel free to bring any personal art supplies you may wish to use.