Attend a plant swap & help rescue endangered sea grass!

This invitation is for you who live in the Turku Archipelago. You are invited to participate by sending in cuttings from houseplants by post. In exchange of the cuttings you will receive a souvenir from the project. For each donated houseplant cutting a patch of sea grass will be transplanted at the bottom of the archipelago sea.

The aim of the project is to shed light on a biotope in danger of extinction, the importance of sea grass as a marine ecosystem, and transplantation as a possible method for recreating damaged or lost sea grass beds whose spread, in the Baltic Sea as well as in other parts of the world, is decreasing because of eutrophication and over-fishing.

Instructions for sending houseplant cuttings by post:

Take one cutting from one or several houseplants. To prevent the houseplant cuttings from drying up during the transportation: wind wet kitchen towel around the ends of the cuttings and wrap the houseplants in plastic film. Place them in a plastic bag, cover it in wrapping paper and put it in an envelope or package.

Please send also details about the houseplant/s: their names or nicknames, whether you have bought, received the houseplant as a gift or inherited it, if the plant is associated with a special memory. Provide also possible tips for its placing and care. Don’t forget to mention your name, postal address and/or email address, so that we can send you the souvenir and further information on the project.

Post the envelope/package so that it is due to arrive between 16.5. – 20.5.2011. You can also bring the plants to Korpoström in person if you are nearby.

The address: The Archipelago Centre Korpoström, 21710 Korpo

The donated houseplants will be displayed at the Archipelago Centre Korpoström between 18.6.-30.9.2011 as part of the exhibition Contemporary Art Archipelago (CAA). The project is carried out by the artist Elin Wikström in collaboration with the marine biologist Christoffer Boström of Åbo Akademi University who organizes the transplantation of the sea grass in the sea nearby Korpoström. The local artist Anna Nyreen (also participating in CAA) will design the souvenir.