At the Pikisaari Biennale, Annelie Wallin continues her socially engaged environmental artwork Gistnande, which started in the summer of 2022 in the Stockholm archipelago. The artwork is participatory and will be created in Pikisaari’s Konepajanpuisto in July-August. The focus of the work Gistnande is the Baltic Sea both as a natural destination and as a cultural and environmental resource.
Annelie Walllin grew up in Stockholm’s southern archipelago on Landsort’s pilot site, Öja. She remembers the Baltic Sea in the 1960s and early 1970s, when there was a lot of fish in the lake and every summer both cod and eel were caught for household needs. The artwork’s title ”Gistnande” comes from the Swedish expression ”att gista nät”; which means to untangle, clean and hang nets to dry. This was traditionally done against a boathouse or on scaffolding on an open flat surface and was then called gistvall. “Gistnande” suggests that something is going on, that it is a work in process.
Annelie Wallin works explore previously unknown connections between Stockholm and Pikisaari, historically linked to shipping, shipbuilding, and pitch burning. She creates the artwork for Pikisaari Konepajanpuisto in interaction with people. The aim is to continue connecting the work started in Stockholm and create new networks as a continuation of old networks. Gistnande focuses on the relationship between humans and the sea, responsible actions, and perspectives. The work’s actual meaning emerges knot by knot, in the meeting between people, with the sea, memories, dreams, and shouldering responsibility for each other and the Baltic Sea.
You can join and create GISTANDE with the artist Annelie Wallin in Pikisaari Konepajanpuisto from August 7 to August 15 between 3 and 5 p.m.
Pikisaari Biennale 2024, Oulu Finland. Foto: Annelie Wallin.
Pikisaari Biennale, Oulu Finland.
I had brought the old net from 2022 and I hung it between two birches, it was a perfect sign and starting point for the new nets to come.
Thanks to:
ArtHub Pikisaari for inviting me to Artist in Residence and the Pikisaari Biennale.
Swedish Art Grant Committee
