Born in Finland, lives in Berlin and Keihärinkoski. Works with drawings, animations, and actions. 2007 she founded MORGENVOGEL REAL ESTATE with Manuel Bonik, a project, that works on many levels, combining art and nature-protection (Morgenvogel-Church, BIRDTALKS, AVANTI NATURA! or the campaign BIG SISTER). The book Morgenvogel Real Estate was published 2014, sponsored by the Cultural Administration of the Berlin Senate. Morgenvogel Real Estate (M0RE) has spread more than 1000 Morgenvogel-Houses in the Berlin urban space. Sponsors: Stiftung Naturschutz Berlin (2018) and the Stiftung Berliner Sparkasse (2019). Working at the moment in Finland for ecological restoration project MAJAVA. http://morgenvogel.net/morgenvogel-news.html

Selected Exhibitions and Actions

2025

Protecting Trees – Crafting Houses

Parrot Tree Caretakers Association meets Morgenvogel Real Estate

March 25, 2025 6–8 pm

With:

Nick Byaba (Parrot Tree Caretakers Association), Kampala, Uganda

Maria Leena Räihälä & Manuel Bonik (Morgenvogel Real Estate), Berlin

Moderator: Felix Sattler, TA T

The TA T – Tieranatomisches Theater invites you to an evening of dialogue and presentations on the preservation of bird habitats through activism and visual art. Featuring conservationist and activist Nick Byaba (Parrot Tree Caretakers Association, Uganda) and artist duo Maria Leena Räihälä & Manuel Bonik (Morgenvogel Real Estate, Germany/Finland), the event explores the intersections of interspecies care and the shared agency of birds and humans in urban and rural environments.

The event is part of the exhibition Hörner/Antlfinger: Parrot Terristories (on view at TA T until March 29) by artists Ute Hörner and Mathias Antlfinger in collaboration with Nick Byaba and CMUK.

While operating in distinct contexts—Uganda’s tropical forests and European urban landscapes—both initiatives reflect a commitment to birds as valued co-inhabitants.

Parrot Tree Caretakers Association (PTCA)

Founded in 2020 by Nick Byaba, the PTCA is a community-based organization dedicated to conserving grey parrots and their habitats. Through tree-planting initiatives, educational outreach, and scientific monitoring, the PTCA works with local farmers and conservationists to ensure the survival of this endangered species. Key achievements include planting over 6,000 indigenous trees, monitoring parrot flyways, and integrating rehabilitated parrots back into their original habitats.

The PTCA also runs educational programs for children, fostering a new generation of conservationists who advocate for the protection of parrots and their ecosystems. Looking ahead, the PTCA aims to establish the world’s first Grey Parrot Museum in Uganda, serving as a hub for education, research, and awareness. greyparrotmuseum-uganda.org

The exhibition Hörner/Antlfinger: Parrot Terristories includes the joint work SEEDS by Hörner/Antlfinger and Nick Byaba.

Morgenvogel Real Estate

Morgenvogel Real Estate (M0RE) is a long-term artistic initiative by Maria Leena Räihälä and Manuel Bonik, addressing the loss of nesting opportunities for urban birds in the wake of urban redevelopment. For over a decade, the Berlin-based art project Morgenvogel has engaged in ecological urban interventions by producing and distributing handcrafted birdhouses tailored for species like tits, sparrows, and pied flycatchers.

With support from conservation foundations, Morgenvogel has placed over 1,000 nesting boxes across Berlin and other European Cities, often accompanying installations with art events such as BirdChurch, Avanti Natura!, and BirdTalks.

Beyond Morgenvogel Real Estate, Maria Leena Räihälä and Manuel Bonik have been engaged in landscape restoration, most recently by their MAJAVA project (2021–2024), an initiative inspired by beavers as ecosystem engineers (Majava is the Finnish word for beaver). Through dam-building and water filtration structures, Morgenvogel seeks to counteract environmental degradation in Finnish wetland and forest areas. morgenvogel.net

2024

BIRDTALKS @ Institut für alles Mögliche, Berlin.

TRAVELING WITHOUT MOVING (drawings), Diagonale 5/Fallstreak, groupshow curated by Axel Roch, St. Nicolai- und St. Marien-Friedhof, Berlin.

2023

DER MORGENVOGEL KOMMT, BIRDTALKS, screening and Morgenvogel-Disco, Haus der Statistik, Alexanderplatz, Berlin.

2022

2021

2020

LETTERS FROM THE WORLD, Taidegalleria Etsivätoimisto, Helsinki.

2019

BRING IN WEIGHT, A CRITIQUE ON POPULISM at 7hours, Berlin.

2018

INSIDE ECOLOGIES – Umwelt als Interaktion (environment as interaction), Weltkunstzimmer, Düsseldorf.

2017

Interfiction, *TOPIA, Dokfest, Kulturbahnhof, Kassel.

2016

un-stable.eu, Kunsthalle am Hamburger Platz, Berlin.

MORGENVOGEL REAL ESTATE, Installation, Tapetenwerk, Leipzig.

2015

DER SINGSCHWAN KOMMT (The whooperswan comes), Happening, FIT – Freie Internationale Tankstelle, Berlin.           A lecture about the Whooper swan by Martin Miethke. Swan sounds and Morgenvogel-DJ Manuel Bonik. Multimedia group CRYSTAL CLEARS from Finland and traditional Finnish "Kuivakuore-Keitto" (Benefit-fish-soup for Refugees, sponsored by Zagreus Project and Sarah Wiener's Wiener Brot). FIT-Sauna.