the humans and more-than-humans behind ROOTED 2026
Liene Jurgelāne
I feel myself as a forest floor that holds it all together and creates the space for the festival and all its beings to grow, thrive and build connections. I am the human heart, hands, mind and overall body that helps plants make this festival happen.
I am bringing with me the Bee balm (Monarda) this year. I love the vibrant, bold and healing presence of this plant and seeing how her energy and guidance is supporting ROOTED to shine in its authentic expression.
Founder & Artistic Director
Maria Jodiyawalla
Apart from being part of the ROOTED team, Maria is educated in Regenerative Leadership at Kaospiloterne and deeply interested in the ways we gather, decolonial practices and regenerative ways of being.
I am bringing Moss - grounded, holding and soft - the forest carpet.
Artist & Process Care
Cultural JanitorMads Peter Laursen
Part of Bureau Detours - a playful collective of artist, activist and cultural janitors. I will be supporting making the space and venues into welcoming useful zones for performances, market, informal meetings etc and I will be helpful with getting ‘stuff’, ex do we have a lamp and a carpet ? Yes We Do !
I am bringing Mist, the ephemeral material flowing between the tree trunks, from the moss roots to the canopy.
ROOTED market weaver
Anika Spindelmann
At ROOTED festival I'll be organising our beautiful, buzzing market happening on Sunday at Kulturtovet, with many stalls and hangout spots with small businesses, artists and plant lovers. Aside from this Anika is a poet, writer & artist, independent researcher. Her work invites into a space of curiosity, intimate encounters and visioning with the land and beings through eco-poetic writing, carrier-bag-like foraging and weaving, multispecies perspectives and observations.
I am calling the spiders into the circle as my co/weavers and companion. The spider has crawled into my life and she inspires me to be patient, honour my craft and keep spinning new stories.
Rafael van der Schaar
The aim of my task is to foster a shared atmosphere of connection. Create a link between plants and people through a number of small and large art installations throughout ROOTED.
I am bringing Elderflower as my more-than-human friend
Scenography Lead
Carolina Marcos Caldeira
At ROOTED I’m focused on communication assets (SoMe and other PR), but also working on a mobile mural that will take place somewhere at the festival. I am born in Madeira Island (Portugal) and have an academic background in Psychological Sciences, Communication and Creative Advertising. My passion for working with words and images brought me to Denmark in 2024 to study Visual Anthropology (Aarhus University), where I am carrying out a research project featuring multispecies ethnographic ventures, focused on more-than-human entanglements and migratory deroutes.
I’m bringing the primroses as my plant ally, and the monarch butterfly. I’ve got a soft spot for primroses as they were the first flowers blooming in the garden where I live in Denmark, right now.
The monarch butterfly is still very fascinating to me as a migratory being, living in motion, becoming rooted in their routes. Again, a super power, and I do share that with them too :)
Communication Lead
Visual LeadStelios Paps
Stelios Papageorgiou is an interdisciplinary graphic designer working between Denmark and his home country, Cyprus. Through his design practice, Common Grounds Studio, he collaborates with organizations and NGOs, blending graphic design, street art, and typography across a wide range of formats and scales. As the creator and curator of @Typosters, he is actively engaged in the global design community, collaborating with international designers. At ROOTED, he’s translating the festival’s vision into visual identity, images, textures, and printed matter.
I would bring the prickly pear cactus (Opuntia), armoured in spines yet offering sweet fruit and luminous flowers, holding protection and generosity in the same body.