Twelve months

An interactive exhibition through seasons, stars, constellations, calendars and time

Available for show

home
exhibitions
books
art objects
contact me

The season’s change is essential to our perception of the world, not only in Finland and Russia, but every major civilization throughout human history, from the Bushman to the Aztecs. Even small children have their own experiences based on the season’s changes, and that is why the subject is integrated into the curriculum of any day-care center in Northern Europe.

That is also why I planned this exhibition as a fully interactive one, inviting both children and adults to participate in it. In fact, the exhibition is a non-stop workshop where anyone can produce something for the ever evolving display.

The central object is a huge tree with twelve rows of branches, representing the months of the year, which rotates constantly in the center of the exhibition space. The exhibition space is divided into four areas, one for each season, with a work table in every corner. Exhibition guests are then allocated a work area according to their own birthday and produce a small decoration according to the month of the year that they were born in. The guests then hang the completed decorations on the matching branches of the rotating tree, thus adding to the display of the month they were born. The tree rotates constantly we can see the seasons passing by and changing in front of our very own eyes.

There are lots of other activities in the exhibition too. You can look at constellations on old maps and search for your own zodiac sign in the constellations. You can make stars and attach them to the sky. You can study ancient and exotic calendars from different cultures around the world and make your own hand-made frottage copy from any of them to take home. You can find your birthday on one of the wall-calendars and mark it with your name as well as listen to the wonderful clock-work style music which was composed by award winning Finnish Jazz Musician Eerik Siikasaari especially for this exhibition. The exhibition ends with a performance where the decorations of the tree become gifts and get given back to the audience.

The exhibition can be displayed in a hall about 80 – 200 m2 and at least 3,50m high. The project can be exhibited in any season, but the best time for the exhibition is around Christmas and New Year, when people think more about calendars, seasons and time. However, the central object of the exhibition is not a Christmas tree – it can be called a Tree of the Whole Year.

© Alexander Reichstein, 2013.
City Sculpture Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia
New Exhibition Hall

Thanks to:

Martin Hackenberg, technical assistance
Marina Maguidovich, curator
Eerik Siikasaari, composer
Tapio Markkanen, Viktor Abalakin, Vladimir Surdin,
Nina Braguinskaya, Darja Agapova: exhibition texts

Finland’s Consulate General, St. Petersburg
Finnish Cultural Foundation




 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

back
forward
top