The Mustarinda House is situated on the second highest summit in the Kainuu region, adjacent to the north-east edge of the Paljakka Nature Reserve. The house is an old elementary school building built in the 1950s. Nowadays it is the only inhabited house on the summit. The house is surrounded by old-growth forest which in its ecological diversity is an extension to the nearby Paljakka Strict Nature Reserve.

Mustarinda is a community in the making since 2009. More-than-human and human bodies are tangled through the house, the sauna, the garden, the yard, the forest, its swamps and wetlands. Together with the permanent dwellers, the Mustarinda Association is a group of artists, housekeepers, local visitors, maintainers, repairers, builders, and researchers of all stripes - all growing roots and transitioning for shorter or longer periods. Their shared goal is to promote the ecological rebuilding of society, the diversity of culture and nature, and the connection between art and science.

At the center of their activity lies contemporary art, boundary-crossing research, practical experimentation, communication, education and events. The Mustarinda Association reaches towards a post-fossil culture by combining scientific knowledge and experiential artistic activity.

In the coming years the Mustarinda Association seeks to actively challenge conventions of research production and dissemination. Their focus will be towards ways of doing and sharing to look beyond the yearly cycles and into the long-term possible futures that help enable an ecological reconstruction.

At this residency, your individual or collective practice is valued in its own right. The open call is for wherever your research, process, focus, or need for time and space takes you.