OLD HARBOUR ART TRAIL
JAKOBSTAD – PIETARSAARI 2025
The OLD HARBOUR ART TRAIL invites visitors to walk through the Old Harbour forest area in
Jakobstad / Pietarsaari and discover landscape-related art projects at various locations.
There will be site-specific works, sculptures, installations, performances and much more.
The Old Harbour Art Trail is curated by Rita Leppiniemi, and produced by OUR AIR
The main collaboration partner is City of Jakobstad
Presentation of the artworks at Old Harbour:
Thursday, 21st of August, 2025, 6 pm
Presentation of the artworks at Old Harbour:
Wednesday, 25th of June, 2025, 6 pm
INVITED ARTISTS
CHRISTINE COSTE (France) is a visual artist working on the interweaving of three specific plastic medium : ceramics, drawing and performance. For the Old Harbour Art Trail, she presents Fracture, an installation and performance that retraces the fictional memory of the territory. She draws an imaginary topographical map that connects the two fractured parts of the rock.
Interview with Christine Coste
LANA GUNJEVIC´ (Croatia) prefers working with natural , such as clay and wood, and being in connection with nature without harming it. In the Old in Jakobstad, a tree attracted her interest branches, it’s covered with shelf fungi and forms a small community of bacteria and insects. She was also inspired and the essential part of tradition in the Old . Her work will combine elements of nature with handcrafted techniques.
Interview with Lana Gunjevic´
CASPAR HÜTER (Germany), has created spaces for the Old Harbour Art Trail, by drawing individual strokes using material in-situ. When you look at the incisions in the vegetation, you can experience his very own “Genius Loci“. The aim is to encourage the viewer to take a “new” look at their surroundings!
More images, Caspar Hüter
ALEKSI JAAKKOLA (Iceland / Finland) employs an interdisciplinary and site-responsive approach. His work spans various media—including photography, sound, drawing, performance, and sculpture—and investigates the relationship between humans and their environments, focusing on deep time, material memory, and more-than-human perspectives. “Himmelande Kittholmen-Old Harbour” a site-specific artwork that aims to capture the essence of the Kittholmen-Old Harbour area in a three-dimensional form.
Interview with Aleksi Jaakkola.
EMMANUELLE PÉPIN (France) is a performer, dancer, and poet. Her artistic work expresses her unique perspective and attentive listening, drawing inspiration from her surroundings. In the Old Harbour Art Trail, the forest inspires her to create a dance, a poem, and an installation that reflect the elements of nature—such as the wind, waves, boat sails, earth, bark, mushrooms, and rocks.
Interview with Emmanuelle Pépin
KIM RATHNAU (Germany) is an eco artist and art educator. Her interdisciplinary work ranges from prints and sculptures to installations and performances. She is particularly interested in the structures of nature – how everything is connected and what conditions the relationships between human and non-human beings in the light of climate change and loss of species. Her art moves between natural spaces and materials in combination with ancient techniques and ecosomatic experiences. Kim Rathnau try to build bridges between art and ecology as well as indigenous approaches and holistic spirituality.
Interview with Kim Rathnau
LEENA REITTU (North Karelia) addresses the loss of biodiversity through her wooden sculptures with care and empathy. Reittu aims to draw the viewer’s attention to the smallest creatures of the forest, each of which has its own place in the ecosystem. The works are made from recycled wood and can serve as homes for various fungi, moss, lichens, and insects.
Interview with Leena Reittu
UWE SCHÄFER (Germany) appreciates art that provides practical use and inspires dreaming, feeling, and thinking. He also believes that art can be humorous. You can experience all of this on his benches at the Old Harbour Art Trail.
Interview with Uwe Schäfer
ANTHONY SHEPHERD (United Kingdom), is a conceptual visual artist working with natural and recycled materials to produce site-specific installations and interventions. For the Old Harbour Art Trail he is working on two projects. One will consider space, boundaries and connections and the other will examine the nurture, care and fight of women against the backdrop of male privilege.
Interview with Anthony Shepherd
IVAN SMITH (United Kingdom), “Höghus – Tall House”
A high rise city for the wildlife of the forest.
This installation in the Old Harbour forest, is made from wood found in the forest. The trees have been chopped down, and then used in the building and manufacturing trades. Eventually it becomes unwanted, and discarded as waste at the Ekorosk centre in Jakobstad. I collected this discarded wood to create my installation, and to place it back into the forest. A full cycle, and now a new home for the wildlife of the Old Harbour forest.
Interview with Ivan Smith
Students from Fine Arts Programme, Novia.
ALINA FINN, MEGAN IHLE, ELISA JÜLLIG, KATERYNA KOZIEI,
MOA KRONQVIST, WILMA NORDBERG, JULIA QVARNSTRÖM
Supervised by THOMAS MAY
MEDIA REVIEWS
Österbottens Tidning August 23th, 2025
Österbottens Tidning June 25th, 2025
Radio Vega, YLE June 13th, 2025
Österbottens Tidning March 12th, 2025
OLD HARBOUR ART TRAIL 2025 IS SUPPORTED BY
The Art Foundation Association (Konstsamfundet), The Icelandic-Finnish Cultural Foundation, Kultur Österbotten, Stiftelsen Emilie och Rudolf Gesellius fond, The Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland (Svenska Österbottens kulturfond), Svensk-Österbottniska Samfundet, William Thurings Stiftelse. Kultur och Fritid, Jakobstad / Kulttuuri ja vapaa-aika, Pietarsaari (Culture and recreation time)
OLD HARBOUR ART TRAIL 2025 IS SPONSORED BY
Ekorosk, Forsbergs Print & Package Group Oy, Jakobstads Båtvarv, Sunds
