Åsa Sonjasdotter // Peace with the Earth

‘Peace on Earth and a new and peaceful relationship with the Earth are inseparable.’
 

The artistic enquiry presented in this book responds to the call, made by two Swedish suffragettes and peace activists Elisabeth Tamm (1880–1958) and Elin Wägner (1882–1949) in their pamphlet Fred med Jorden (Peace with the Earth, 1940). Grounded in research into agricultural practices on the Swedish island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea, the quotations, documents and photographs of dead and living matter presented in this book testify to ways of living off the land. These assemblages sketch out the nurturing environments of three relict crops cultivated from prehistoric times until the present day.