Elder’s Hill. Kultivator Farm, Öland, Sweden. Earth form, root cellar, building materials. 2013.
Elder’s Hill is an on-site project by M12 (USA) and Kultivator (SE) located in Öland, Sweden. As a collaborative work, Elder’s Hill is emblematic of both M12 and Kultivator’s artistic practices, based largely around cultural exchange and intergenerational knowledge within a rural context. There are two main components to the work: a root cellar and an open-air classroom. Inspired by 19th century earth shelters built both in America and in rural Sweden, the structure is built using earth, stone, and wood with simple hand tools and materials readily available in the landscape. The root cellar performs as a learning collection, housing regional culinary traditions. The open-air classroom, located on top of the root cellar, is a space for social learning, sharing, and teaching by community elders. A roughly 70-year old fallen tree has been placed in the middle of the space to encourages further group learning and reflection on themes found within the work.
