Against the Grain is a conceptual cereal garden that brings modes and scales of agricultural
production into urban space. It acts as an agricultural art work that addresses several aspects of
contemporary grain production. Who has access to arable lands? How is the grain that grows on it
cultivated, grown, traded and processed?

Installed in spring 2022 in the garden of the Estonian Contemporary Art Museum EKKM, and
maintained throughout the season by the community gardeners, Against the Grain is born and
developed in collaboration with local small scale organic grain farmers and environmental
institutes, in order to bridge agriculture, art and wider audiences.

At EKKM, the installation takes the form of a mini-cereal field covered with both a protective and
sculptural netting over its entire surface. Modular in height to allow the cereals to grow over time,
this envelope takes the form of an organic vessel, carrying the 12 types of bread-making cereals.
Wishing to integrate as well as possible with the existing space, the chosen fixing points (created
with the help of the blue agricultural twine, a common multipurpose material used in farms) are
natural and lean on the trees or the metallic beams that litter the exterior spaces. The installation is
located on the boundary between the museum's garden and the parking lot, and takes the form of
a speculative cadastral map.

Around the installation, qr-codes have been installed. These lead to
an evolving online platform that provides information on the seeds sown at Ekkm while putting
them in relation with the issues of global grain production.

Access to the online platform
https://giselegonon.net/against-the-grain/

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cc0WcPqtzi0/?img_index=3

https://www.instagram.com/p/CjQsj1wrkwl/?img_index=1

This project is supported by @ekkmtallinn, @kultuurkapital and @goetheinstitut_estland @if_estonie and sponsored by @isekallur and #hiiujähu

Thanks to EKKMi kogukonnaaednikud/EKKM community gardeners, Karin Poola & Soera talumuuseum, Kadi-Ell Tähiste, Marys Suislepp, Laura Toots, Kadi Kesküla, Maria Muuk, Patrick Zavadskis, Solveig Lill, Robin Siimann, Michel Faure, Daniel Manson, Cathy Douvre et Mara Kirchberg.

Against the Grain is a conceptual cereal garden that brings modes and scales of agricultural
production into urban space. It acts as an agricultural art work that addresses several aspects of
contemporary grain production. Who has access to arable lands? How is the grain that grows on it
cultivated, grown, traded and processed?

Installed in spring 2022 in the garden of the Estonian Contemporary Art Museum EKKM, and
maintained throughout the season by the community gardeners, Against the Grain is born and
developed in collaboration with local small scale organic grain farmers and environmental
institutes, in order to bridge agriculture, art and wider audiences.

At EKKM, the installation takes the form of a mini-cereal field covered with both a protective and
sculptural netting over its entire surface. Modular in height to allow the cereals to grow over time,
this envelope takes the form of an organic vessel, carrying the 12 types of bread-making cereals.
Wishing to integrate as well as possible with the existing space, the chosen fixing points (created
with the help of the blue agricultural twine, a common multipurpose material used in farms) are
natural and lean on the trees or the metallic beams that litter the exterior spaces. The installation is
located on the boundary between the museum's garden and the parking lot, and takes the form of
a speculative cadastral map.

Around the installation, qr-codes have been installed. These lead to
an evolving online platform that provides information on the seeds sown at Ekkm while putting
them in relation with the issues of global grain production.

Access to the online platform
https://giselegonon.net/against-the-grain/

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cc0WcPqtzi0/?img_index=3

https://www.instagram.com/p/CjQsj1wrkwl/?img_index=1

This project is supported by @ekkmtallinn, @kultuurkapital and @goetheinstitut_estland @if_estonie and sponsored by @isekallur and #hiiujähu

Thanks to EKKMi kogukonnaaednikud/EKKM community gardeners, Karin Poola & Soera talumuuseum, Kadi-Ell Tähiste, Marys Suislepp, Laura Toots, Kadi Kesküla, Maria Muuk, Patrick Zavadskis, Solveig Lill, Robin Siimann, Michel Faure, Daniel Manson, Cathy Douvre et Mara Kirchberg.