Wandering Trees, Siikaneva Peatland

Wandering Trees, Siikaneva Peatland

When: January 5 to February 7, 2026

Where: Toomey Lobby Lightboxes

Viewing Hours:

Monday through Friday, 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Saturday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Closed Sundays
During scheduled events at PRAx

Parking: Don't have a campus parking pass but want to visit visual arts exhibitions at PRAx? Ask the Box Office for a pay code upon arrival, on us!

Currents represents the inaugural and annual arts-science-humanities visual arts takeover in PRAx. See other related exhibitions:

Ray Theater: September: Orange │January 5 to 24, 2026
Arts Corridor: Threshold 32ºF │January 5 to February 7, 2026)
Stirek Gallery: Currents: Experiments in Art-Science Collaboration │January 22 to March 5, 2026
Join us for the Opening Celebration of Currents: Experiments in Art-Science Collaboration at PRAx on January 22, 2026.

Trees are walking away from climate change.

But they are very, very slow.

Still, some trees migrate faster than others ...

Trees are rooted, yet long-term scientific observation shows they do migrate — slowly, across landscapes and over decades. This is happening in response to climate change, which is advancing faster than trees can move. The Office for Tree Migration (OTM) is a long-term project by artist Agnes Meyer-Brandis that observes tree migration across diverse ecosystems worldwide. The project engages in dialogue with the international scientific community, creating narratives and raising questions about how climate change affects ecosystems often seen as fixed or unchangeable. Since 2022, OTM has been installed at the Hyytiälä Forest Station at the University of Helsinki in Finland, where both natural and assisted tree migration have been documented in the protected Siikaneva peatland as part of the Climate Whirl Art&Science Program.

The Art

This collection of eight images traces the journey of a Pinus sylvestris through a boreal bog, moving both on its own and with assistance from OTM agents. Despite its fanciful elements, the work is far from fantasy. It is a poetic reflection on contemporary ecological change informed by both artistic and scientific observation, with trees as its central protagonists.

The work asks: What happens in the peatland when no one is present? What new stories unfold along the pines’ shifting paths? And how might OTM agents help trees migrate and survive an increasingly unstable climate?

The Collaborators

Agnes Meyer-Brandis is a Berlin-based artist with a background in sculpture and new media. She creates works on the fringes of science, fiction and fabulation.

Ulla Taipale is a Finnish art curator, affiliated with the Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research, University of Helsinki. She is the director and curator of Climate Whirl Art&Science Program, based at Hyytiälä Forest Station in Finland.

WANDERING TREES, SIIKANEVA PEATLAND was created in the framework of Climate Whirl Arts Program at The University of Helsinki / Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research (INAR), in cooperation with Hyytiälä Forest Station, University of Eastern Finland, and Atmosphere and Climate Competence Center (ACCC), and with support from the Finnish Cultural Foundation’s Pirkanmaa Regional Fund, The Alfred Kordelin Foundation, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Arts Promotion Centre Finland, and Serlachius Museums.