A gathering on Åland Islands
 27–30 September 2025

• Exhibition • Panel discussion • Sensorial Walk • Workshop •

Along the coast of Åland, DACE initiates a new research cycle in which artistic practice, marine science, and ecological wisdom move in the same current. We begin from a simple, yet complex and radical, question:how can we learn with the sea, not only about it?

The shoreline appears here not as a fixed boundary but as a shifting threshold where land and water continuously shape and reshape one another. Within this borderland, low-trophic species; algae, mussels, plankton, form the living foundation of the ecosystem. What becomes of our notions of nature, culture, and responsibility when we attune ourselves to the rhythm of seaweed, the tempo of the currents, and the memory of the tide?

The work fluctuates between myth and metrics, ritual and laboratory, body and technology, archive and improvisation, opening more nuances and possibilities for understanding the sea’s complexity and our own place in it. Together with Husö Biological Station and NIPÅ—the Nordic Institute on Åland, we bring sampling and species knowledge into conversation with choreography, image, and poetry: hydrophones listen beneath the surface, field notes become drawings, time series become movement. What kind of knowledge arises when sensory presence and scientific rigour carry one another? In this interplay, the sea appears as a co-actor: a place where species, materials, and technologies shape stories together.

At the same time, an ethic for our time is being tested. The Baltic Sea holds the memory of loss and the means to mend. Climate change, pollution, and loss of biodiversity are not only scientific questions but also cultural and existential. If we see the sea as part of our shared composition, what movements, currents, and commitments then follow? What might care, reciprocity, and justice look like, in practice and in policy?

We invite you to the shoreline: to converse, to listen, and to share. Here we experiment with art, science, and care can shape equitable and reciprocal relations with the sea, relations that are felt in bodies and influence how we act and are together. Join and take part where land and sea meet, at the shifting boundary where new questions can become action.

Welcome
Rickard Borgström & Rebecca Chentinell
DACE – Dance Art Critical Ecology

• Exhibition 
In the Shoreline at Kulturvillan (27–30.9)

• Panel discussion
What can science and art do for the Baltic Sea? at Mariehamn city library 27.9 

• Sensorial Walk
Sea Orientation along the shoreline of Lilla Holmen and at Tullarns äng 28.9

• Workshop 
The Sea as Relation, Practice and Field of Knowledge at Husö biological station 28–30.9

• More information
Free admission, information about the events can be found on NIPÅ – Nordic Institute on Åland’s website. 

Participating artists and scientist
• Kristin Bergaust • Fernanda Branco • Tamara Brito de Heer • Tony Cederberg • Kajsa Dahlberg • Amalia Fonfara • Cillia Hermann • Mikko Hyvönen • Inga Kuznecova • Kruno Jošt • Eeva Juutinen • Jessie Kleemann • Pipsa Lonka • Varste Mathæussen • Sara Rönnbäck • Katarina Skår Lisa • Daniel Slåttnes • Katja Syrjä • Carla Tapparo • Pella Thiel •  Under Ytan • Sinna Virtanen • Silke Weißbach • Tery Žeželj • Among others •

We warmly thank NIPÅ – the Nordic Institute on Åland – for believing in the project from the start, Husö Biological Station for collaboration and knowledge exchange, and the Guest Artist Residence in the Åland Archipelago. Our gratitude also goes to our local partners – Kulturvillan, Mariehamn City Library, ReGeneration Week, the Maritime Quarter, the Consulate General of Sweden in Mariehamn, Ålands Natur & Miljö, Åland Maritime Museum, and the Baltic Sea Foundation – as well as our colleagues in the Creative Europe–funded network Island Connect.

Finally, we thank the Nordic Culture Fund and Nordic Culture Point, whose support makes it possible to bring Baltic and Nordic actors together around art, research, and Baltic Sea issues.

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