Marja Helander’s Birds in the Earth screened in Krakow, Prague, and São Paulo

Marja Helander’s Birds in the Earth (2018) continues its world tour. On Wednesday, May 15, it will be screened both at Dance Moments 19, Krakow, Poland (curated by Christiane Hartter from Deutsches Tanzarchiv Köln), and at Dance Film Festival Prague, Czech Republic. Next week, it will be screened at Festival de Finos Filmes, held from May 22–28 in São Paulo.

Birds in the Earth is a short film based on dance. The main characters are two young Sámi ballet students; Birit and Katja Haarla. The movie tells a bit melancholic story through their dance performances. At the same time it examines the deeper questions of the ownership of Sámi land.

Marja Helander (b.1965) is a Finnish photographic and video artist. She graduated from the University of Art and Design in Helsinki in 1999. Her earlier work explored her own identity between the Finnish and the Sámi culture. Helander’s recent photographic work has focused on Northern landscape. The accent of the work is on the postcolonial topics in the Sámi area, focusing particularly on the global mining industry. The encounter between nature and mankind is not harmonious, but destructive. On the other hand, her video works are playful, exploring the contradiction between the traditional Sámi way of life and the modern society. Her recent short film Birds in the Earth won the Risto Jarva Prize in Tampere Film Festival 2018. Marja Helander has participated in solo and group exhibitions and her works have been acquired for various public collections in Finland and abroad.


Dance Moments 19 [,haima:t], May 15 2019, Krakow, Poland

Dance Film Festival Prague, May 15 2019, Prague, Czech Republic

Festival de Finos Filmes, May 22–28 2019, São Paulo, Brazil


AV-ARKKI HAS PROMOTED AND DISTRIBUTED FINNISH MEDIA ART SINCE 1989. AV-ARKKI’S PROMOTIONAL EFFORTS HAVE MADE THE ARTISTS’ PARTICIPATION IN THIS EVENT POSSIBLE.

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