Kollʼješkuätt
15.10.2025
Wind and Weather
15.10.2025
Julijonas Urbonas
Location → Lohipadonniemi, Raatinsaari, Oulu
The artwork is switched on from 10am to 8pm everyday until August 31st
NOTE! Due to reasons beyond our control, Lohipadonniemi is inaccessible during the construction and dismantling of Qstock-festival.
Lawn Centrifuge is a fusion of kinetic earth art, astrobotanical machinery, and a green amusement park.
This project invites contemplation on the intricacies of space gardening and the ever-shifting ground beneath our very feet. It not only evokes a sense of disorientation but also challenges our perception of a stable horizon. Traditional ways of seeing and experiencing are rendered obsolete, and our sense of balance is disrupted. The horizon line swirls, spills out, destroying the modernist constructs of subject and object, time and space, as well as nature, culture and technology.
Buried underneath the grass, a platform spins a five meter diameter disc of sod. If you step on the platform, it starts spinning under your feet. The work is a tribute to Lithuanian scientists who revolutionized astrobotany by successfully cultivating plants from seeds in microgravity in the 80s.
Accessibility
Accessibility for people with reduced mobility: The work is located in the Lohipadonniemi park area. The work is on grass, and the path leading to it is asphalt, gravel and a dirt road. The ground in the park is also partially paved. The nearest parking lot is next to the park, about 100 meters from the work. The nearest bench is directly next to the work.
Accessibility through the senses: The work is experienced by sight and touch.
Image gallery
Artist:
Julijonas Urbonas
Julijonas Urbonas is an artist, designer, researcher, engineer and associate professor at Vilnius Academy of Arts. He is the founder of the art&science-combinining research project Lithuanian Space Agency, whose installations and works combine architecture, space exploration and the aesthetics of gravity. Urbonas’ self-dependent art has been influenced by his growing up environment in a Soviet-era amusement park. Before his career as an artist, Urbonas was the CEO of Klaipėda city’s amusement park. Currently Urbonas lives and works in Vilnius.
Urbonas’ artistic research revolves around gravitational aesthetics, extraterrestrial arts, critical design, amusement park engineering, performative architecture, scenography and sci-fi. He has represented Lithuania in several triennials and biennials such as the 17th Venice Biennale of Architecture, and received international acclaim, including being awarded the prestigious Award of Distinction in Interactive Art at the Prix Ars Electronica 2010 and the Lithuanian Government’s Culture and Arts Prize 2024.
