Human Beeing

Our urban environment is constituted not only by the activities and processes of us humans, but also a variety of species that co-construct our habitat. Among them especially the bees are important for the natural balance and environment. Without bees, nature as we know (or made) would stop to exist, since they are most active in pollination on which one third of the human food supply depends on.

Human Beeing, an ecological videomapping project by The Constitute, honors the bees by making their activities visible in the city in a large-scale projection.  A custom-made hive was prepared for the bees and placed on the roof of the Lasipalatsi building. The frame of the hive was a scale model of the former bus station at Lasipalatsi Square, on which the bee population built their combs. This activity was filmed over a period of two weeks, and produced into a video projection on the old bus station facade.

The project was realized in collaboration with beekeeper Heimo Varonen and the Goethe Institute.

Human Beeing opened on the Night of Arts, August 21 at Lasipalatsi Square and was shown until August 24 2014.

Human Beeing was co-produced by The Constitute for the Connecting Cities programme 2014 with the Public Art Lab, Berlin. Besides Helsinki, the project was presented in Berlin, Liverpool and Madrid.