LAYERS – ALAN SONFIST

PRESS RELEASE (in Finnish)

The art project Layers by American environmental artist Alan Sonfist (b. 1946) explores the ecological and cultural layers of the urban environment in Pori. The exhibition illustrates the history of Pori’s natural and built environment through artifacts and vegetation collected from the area. By juxtaposing nature and human culture, as well as different time periods, the exhibition presents objects, artifacts, vegetation, soil samples, and various research and documentation materials. The stages of urban vegetation have been reconstructed using seed bank research conducted by the Satakunta Environmental Research Center, while the current environment has been mapped with vegetation investments.

Alan Sonfist, who has a background in both natural sciences and art, has been creating environmental art projects since the mid-1960s. His works focus on restoring nature to its original, unpolluted state, often within urban settings. Among his most renowned projects is Time Landscape (1960s), created in the heart of New York City, where a forest planted on Manhattan showcases the city’s natural history through original trees and vegetation. This piece, along with his Gene Pool Series from the 1970s, has served as a foundation for many of Sonfist’s later works advocating for the environment. The artist is currently preparing new projects in Dallas and Paris.

The Layers project team includes, in addition to the artist, researcher Heli Jutila from the Satakunta Environmental Research Center; art students Pia Hovi, Tero Liljamo, and Mirja Ramstedt; architecture student Mikko Nurminen; and photographer Erkki Valli-Jaakola.

The publication accompanying the exhibition contains presentations from a seminar held during Finland’s Green Year national celebration in June 1995 in Pori, as well as documentation of the planning and realization of Alan Sonfist’s Layers.

Publication:
ISBN 951-9355-48-0
Luonnon ja kulttuurin KERROSTUMIA/ LAYERS of Nature and Culture (essay collection, Alan Sonfist & workgroup, layers of Pori)
Editing: Marketta Seppälä
Articles: Juha Hiedanpää
Photographs: Erkki Valli-Jaakola
Planning: Esko Nummelin
Painohäme Oy, Ylöjärvi 1995

Translated with ChatGPT