HABITAT
IVAR VEERMAË
The Estonian artist Ivar Veermaë adds a new layer to his oeuvre in his most recent work, Habitat. For
a long time, his work focused mainly on the entwinement of public space and technology. After his daughter was born this changed to include environmental issues. Lockdown walks around Berlin with his baby made Veermaë think about our environmental policies.
He found a forest next to a newly built Tesla car giga factory. Here, environmental services fight the rise of exotic plants and animals, leaving parts of the forest in disarray with uprooted trees. Only a stone’s throw away, the production of cars should save the environment.
The irony of the situation made Veermaë develop Habitat. He collected the roots of unwanted trees and talked to the forest keeper.
He filmed the forest by the lights of a Tesla car and made a 3D film around the site. Out of these elements, he keeps building his work Habitat anew for each exhibition.
The result is a poetic experience of this awkward site. Ivar Veermaë to rethink what a healthy ecology and our role in it should be.
