Featured image from: Leena Kela: Rest of Time (2021)

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Performative works

Annette Arlander: The Daily Birch (September in Mustarinda) brief (2020, 14:10)

The Daily Birch (September in Mustarinda) was performed daily with a birch behind Mustarinda house in Hyrynsalmi in Northeastern Finland between 2 and 30 September 2020 (except September 14) and here in the brief version edited with 30-second clips of each session.

Annette Arlander: The Reclining Birch Mix (2020, 16:41:00)

The Reclining Birch mix was performed with a reclining birch on a forest path near Mustarinda house in Hyrynsalmi in Northeastern Finland on 8 September 2020, recording the same image without the human figure and then combining the two videos with slow crossfades.

Annette Arlander: Day with a Bog Birch (with the text) (2020, 20:00)

Day with a Bog Birch (with text) was recorded on 23 September 2020 with a birch on a bog near Mustarinda house in Hyrynsalmi in Northeastern Finland every hour from sunrise to sunset (7 am to 7 pm). The texts were written after each session and recorded the following day.

Leena Kela: Rest of Time (2021, 09:33)

Video essay deals with time, slowness and change from the perspectives of a human body and rocks. The big, stable rocks represent slowness and permanence, in which a human touch has made quick changes. A human body itself wouldn’t win the unwavering force of a rock, but by using different tools a human can win the permanence of a rock and reform the landscape into a sculpture.

Musical works

Marja Viitahuhta: Aski (2023, 03:18)

Aski (Shelter / Suoja) is a video work that deals with the concepts of shelter and belonging. In the video sami musician Ánnámáret holds up a scarf belonging to the national costume of Sámi women, the gákti. It flutters in the air alike a flag. The video repeats a gesture present in several video works created as a collaboration between Viitahuhta and Ánnámáret: the alternation of covering and revealing. The scarf alternately covers the face, alternately reveals it. This gesture is emphasized by the use of layers and cross images in the cut, the overlapping of images. The carrying power of the simple video is Ánnámáret’s fixed, inevitable and steady gaze. In addition to Ánnámáret’s yoik and Turkka Inkilä’s electronic music, the music includes the Japanese shakuhachi flute played by Inkilä and the sounds of the jouhikko (finnish bowed lyre) played by Ilkka Heinonen. The video is part of a series of video works that Viitahuhta has made in collaboration with musicians Ánnámáret, Ilkka Heinonen and Turkka Inkilä. The song heard in the video was recorded for the album Ánnámáret: Nieguid duovdagat.

Marja Viitahuhta: Nuppi bealde (2023, 05:12)

Nuppi bealde is a yoik in which the spirits of Saivo, the two-bottomed lake, are brought forth. The Sámi musician Ánnámáret’s yoik melody first carries the video piece with a soaring treble, but as the piece progresses, it sinks into the depths, accompanied by Ilkka Heinonen’s jouhikko (finnish bowed lyre). The soundscapes created by Turkka Inkilä first create an image of twinkling clocks, frost and spaciousness, but later shatter and are reborn in another form, creating an image of a different kind of world. The visual material of the work is a combination of ice, water, the spreading of watercolor paint and drawing animation, where the real elements of the landscape are multiplied and repeated and the black and white landscape is colored, fragmented and transformed. The video is part of a series of video works that Viitahuhta has made in collaboration with musicians Ánnámáret, Ilkka Heinonen and Turkka Inkilä. The song heard in the video was recorded for the album Ánnámáret: Nieguid duovdagat.

Marja Viitahuhta: Sieidi (2023, 03:50)

What happens when old beliefs and modern times collide and we create new relationships with old cultural signifiers? In Sieidi, Ánnámáret builds a relationship with the sieidi, an offering place and its being by yoiking. Yoiking makes the siedi true and strengthens its power. The video shows Samuli Paulaharju’s archive photo from 1930 of the sieidi located in Dierpmesvárri, Enontekiö. The photo is shaped by various digital collage techniques and effects. The piece is a cameraless film created from a single stock photo by digitally editing it into a time lapse animation. The stone seems to multiply in the image, covering itself and becoming visible again. The shape of the stone in the picture is remembered even when it is not visible in the picture. Ánnámáret’s experimental yoik is accompanied by Turkka Inkilä and Ilkka Heinonen. Archive image: Seita, Terbmisvaarri, photographer Samuli Paulaharju, year 1930, source Finna.fi, organisation Museovirasto, collections Samuli Paulaharjun kokoelma and Kansatieteen kuvakokoelma.

Installations

Milla-Kariina Oja: Earthbound (2020, 09:44)

Earthbound is a kind of a meditative journey into the depths of the Earth, inside the natural material of the stone itself. In this kaleidoscopically constructed film, nature draws its own mystical story, in which human beings play a part only for a brief moment. The work reflects on human beings’ intimate and profound relationship with nature, both as a species and as individuals. Earthbound can be shown as a video installation or as a projection on a screen.  Screening version also available.

Milla-Kariina Oja: He said we’d met in space and suggested we travel back together (2020, 12:28)

He said we’d met in space and suggested we travel back together is a two-channel spatial video installation, centred on a man and a woman who seem to have been inserted into this multidimensional cinematic world. To be in the world is apparently to be on the brink of absurdity. The difference between real and choreographed, natural and unnatural, is not always clear. In this meditative work nature plays a key role setting the boundaries that enable our very existence, both as nature and in nature.

Milla-Kariina Oja: Stone under the Moon (2022, 08:32)

If nature had a mind, how would it work? Could we commune with it? How would it be possible to understand the innermost essence of a natural entity such as a stone or the wind? These questions have driven the odd imaginary world that Milla-Kariina Oja has constructed in the Stone under the Moon video installation. The single-channel spatial video installation is centred on a barren and active island. The island is a living agent that writes its own story. Simultaneously, a human being aims to resonate with the surrounding environment through spontaneous ritualistic gestures. The work meditates on the core of human beings’ intimate and profound relationships with nature, and reflects on our seemingly absurd ways of being and acting. Screening version also available.

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. If you want to hear the latest news from our distribution, subscribe to our newsletter!