Idea & format
TRE TRE TRE is conceptualised as a curatorial format that brings together a series of processes and experiments situated in three different forest regions in the North Eastern corner of the Nordic countries. The forests of Pasvik, Paljakka and Temminki-Markkatieva are located at a distance of approximately 800 km from each other. Together they form a triangle.
Here, fieldwork is being conducted by small groups of artists and various other knowledge carriers. As we return to the forest with artistic tools, methods and gestures, we contribute towards weaving vessels of sensual knowledges, resting in forest-human relationships, and founded on the basis of each contributor's particular practice and affinities. Do we sense the knowing? As the processes gradually ground the work within these places, they make physical and imaginary connections between the three forest localities. They gradually perform a triangulation.
‘Triangulation’ is a term found in different fields. It is a method used in sociology and in geometry. In art it has been used to stress non-binary understandings and worldviews1. Three, as a number, is considered auspicious, and even sacred, in most mystical traditions. In physics, the number is too large to describe, while mathematics says to prove that it exists. In some indigenous languages, only the numbers one and two exist, while the number after two indicates 'more'. Many words with the prefix tri- also have the meaning of more than two (e.g. the word Tribe).
In cartography, triangulation is an outdated method from when land surveyors physically measured and staked out elevations and distances using optical devices and physical measuring sticks (now replaced by GPS and trilateration). This mirrors the acts of TRE TRE TRE, where bodies and instruments are physically placed and in motion in the forest. One can only partially contribute to the simple principle of triangulation: That observation from more than two points provides a richer opportunity to understand phenomena.
1 Malin Arnell and Åsa Elzén in Skogen kallar, a public art work that connects stories about the Fogelstad group, a queer feminist initiative formed in Sweden in 1921, to the act of preservation of a triangular shaped forest in Southern Sweden over the next 50 years.
Background & partners
TRE TRE TRE is founded on the idea of a long-term collaboration between three partners and places: Mustarinda in the border area between Hyrynsalmi and Poulanka east in Kainuu, Lena Ylipää in Lainio in the east of Kiruna Municipality, and Hilde Methi in Kirkenes, Sør-Varanger, in eastern Finnmark. Their work are in various ways place-based. With TRE TRE TRE they are forming a loosely knit network with local and visiting contributors to processes that are running in parallell and crossing paths.
In 2022, Rusto Myllylahti, Mar Fjell, Malin Arnell, Kristin Tårnesvik, Sallamari Rantala, Remi Vesala and Hilde Methi started to research soils in Mustarinda. New processes are taking place here through intermittent stays.
The soils theme is curatorially motivated by the collaboration with Nora Sørensen Vaage and the research project Anthropogenic SOILS (2022-2028), where Pasvik is one of the field research places, and is also involving Cornelya Klutsch and the NIBIO Svanhovd.
Pasvik, Paljakka & Temminiki-Markkatieva are forests and communities in the so-called “periphery” of the Nordics. These regions are experiencing change due to recent geopolitical shifts, climate change, depopulation, new initiatives in energy production, and the continued threat of centralisation of social services.
With events and research on ecologies of soil substrate, forest and rural communities, TRE TRE TRE is aiming to challenge and alter understandings and the cultural values of "rurality" and "periphery", and disrupt the value systems that see these places, localities and positions as mere extractable "resource areas".
TRE TRE TRE is run by Hilde Methi in collaboration with Nora S. Vaage, Remi Vesala, Neal Cahoon, Mustarinda (Miina Kaatinen and Sallamari Rantala), Lena Ylipää, and in conversation with all participants involved.