1 Annette Arlander Becoming Juniper – Performing Landscape as Artistic Research The text has been previously published in German, as “‘Becoming Juniper’. Landschaft performen als künstlerische Forschung” in Daniela Hahn & Erika Fischer-Lichte (eds.) Ökologie und die Künste. Paderborn: Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 2015, p. 141-157. 1 This text consists of two parts, with an introduction and an epilogue. In the first part I discuss the notion of landscape briefly. In the second part I describe an example of a practice of performing landscape and discuss some of its aspects that might be useful for understanding or developing related practices. Finally, as an epilogue, I take up the question of how to speak of the environment. Introduction How to perform landscape, not only represent it? Can you have a meaningful relationship with a singular element in the landscape? How can you relate to a living being that you do not easily recognise as your kind? A plant is hard to see as a partner in interaction although plants are actually our collaborators with regard to production of oxygen and carbon dioxide. Plants are our allies, since they produce, via their photosynthesis, the basic ingredients of our food. They are the true creators of our world. There is a kind of symbiotic relationship between plants and animals, in this case a shrub and a human being. Most plants are stationary, reliable to be there for us. We could say that a plant ‘knows’ what it means to be site-specific. During the year of the rabbit 2011 I chose a juniper growing on Harakka Island in Helsinki as my partner in the project Year of the Rabbit – With a Juniper. A juniper seemed to me a strange enough creature together with which I could search for a new contact with the environment. I ended up visiting the juniper once a week and “holding hands” with it wrapped in a green scarf. Passers-by and colleagues were invited to witness my performances and follow a blog about the project. 2 While travelling I encountered other junipers to make acquaintance with and I spent time with junipers in the year 2012 as well. Am I perhaps “becoming juniper”? As David Abram writes in his beautiful book Becoming Animal, despite its title (inspiring mine) which is more influenced by Maurice Merleau-Ponty than Gilles Deleuze: “We can feel the trees and the rocks underfoot, because we are not so unlike them,” because “we are not pure mind- 1 The text is based on a talk given on the 2 nd of May 2013 at Freie Universität Berlin. I want to thank Erika Fischer- Lichte and Daniela Hahn for inviting me. I am proud to be able to be part of such an interesting program. I also want to thank Daniela Hahn for the careful editing of this text. 2 The blog can be found at http://aa-katajankanssa.blogspot.com/. (25.5.2015)