"Playing with visual forms of obstruction and auditory distortion, it is as overwhelming as it is daunting. Bravissima." 

Sophie Halart (Art Historian)

ENGLISH ( >>> castellano abajo)

Honeybee´s journey into the heart of anthropocene.

INTO THE WILD takes us back in time, to a remote corner of a natural park in Southern Lithuania. By documenting ancient beekeeping activities, Makela tracks down key moments in the relationship between two species, and how this affected the process of subjugating the honey bee into a condition of exploitable natural resource. These kinds of processes eventually led us towards the anthropocene we know today. But what do we see in the future?

The artist spent three years as a beekeeper, documenting her experiences with an I-Phone. She researched the history of European beekeeping and visited bee centers in Finland, Germany, Slovenia, Poland and Lithuania. She also wrote a historical treatise of the importation of honey bee in Finland. Her theoretical framework is critical animal studies.

Into the Wild was re-edited and remastered as single channel version in 2021. The video was originally part of a 4- channel video installation "History of an Impossible Destiny", which premiered in 2019 at MAC, Museum of Contemporary Art in Santiago, Chile. It was curated by Valentina Montero and Alessandra Burotto. The solo exhibition received funding from FRAME.

The project has received financial support from Kone Foundation, Niilo Helander Foundation and Finnish Cultural Foundation. Makela worked on the script during her artist residency at the Saari Residence in Finland. The video is distributed by AV-arkki, the Centre for Finnish Media Art.

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KEYWORDS  honey bee, tree beekeeping, posthumanism, animal history, anthropocene