Dominik Fleischmann

Artwork was located in Höyrymyllyntie in Toppilansalmi in May-September 2026. Thank you for all visitors!

Dominik Fleischmann’s Leaf Print Garden was an interactive art installation where visitors are invited to create photographs on leaves, in memory of the companions who nurture us.

The work was a combination of urban garden and alternative photography workshop that opens up new perspectives on plants, companionship and sunlight, through the tender chlorophyll process.

The outdoor installation featured an arrangement of wooden planter boxes where pollinator friendly flowers and large leaved plants grow. What made these boxes unique is their additional function as a print making station. Chlorophyll printing is an alternative photographic technique making use of photosynthesis, where a photographic image is developed on a leaf. In this natural process the picture is exposed directly through sunlight on plant or tree leaves.

It was a living installation, thriving on the curiosity of many. Visitors, young and old, become caretakers, artists, and explorers. Visitors were encouraged to water the plants and create their own photographs of a companion (human and not) who they would like to remember in a leaf. The final leaf artworks could be taken home or exhibited in the garden’s gallery. While the abundance of leaves can be utilised by human visitors to create organic photographs, the flowers and fruiting bodies were meant for the local wildlife and pollinators as an invitation to feast on whatever the little garden has to offer.

The artist’s wish for this installation was that people will revisit the Leaf Print Garden often, become familiar with the different plants and engage in a multi-species dialogue: By creating their personal stories on leaves—and in return, give back to the garden by nurturing the plants.

The artwork was open to the public as part of the ARToulu art area 27.5.-20.9.2026.

A series of open-access art workshops was organized in the immediate vicinity of Leaf print garden between June and September. Installed at the Hamina-Ville playground in Toppilansalmi, the artwork consisted of a raised bed garden equipped with photo-printing stations—frames designed to experiment with transferring photos onto plant leaves using sunlight.

During the construction phase of Leaf print garden, the artist facilitated two workshops. For the first one, we invited 5- to 6-year-old children from a local daycare to plant the vegetation. In the second workshop, we collaborated with clients of immigrant background from Vuolle Setlementti’s Ystävyystalo, who built wooden insect hotels together with the artist. An arts educator worked alongside the artist as a co-facilitator and interpreter during the workshops.

Dominik Fleischmann’s artwork in itself invited public participation, practical engagement, and exploration through activities such as gardening and leaf-printing photos. In addition, ARToulu’s arts educator hosted open pop-up workshops around the installation throughout the summer until mid-September. In the early summer Everyone’s garden -workshops, participants built insect hotels for local pollinators out of natural materials. Later in the summer and autumn, the Garden of color – workshops invited people to explore the artwork and the blooming raised beds by painting and drawing its plants, flowers, fruits, and vegetables.

The garden component of the installation has been donated to Dodo ry and will come back to life at Dammisaari’s Rapumaja in spring 2027.