Niina Vatanen‘s Danse de la terre (featured image) and Marja Viitahuhta & Ánnámáret’s Vuoiŋŋat (Spirits) are selected for the 25th Silhouette Festival taking place from August 28 to September 5, 2026 in Paris, France. Danse de la terre is screened in the programme SÉLECTION HYBRIDE and Vuoiŋŋat (Spirits) in SÉLECTION CLIP.

In Danse de la terre, Niina Vatanen combines different sources from self-shot Super8 material to archival material and phytograms made with plants. Spring and plants take center stage in the work. The ending of winter and the return of spring, the rejuvenation of nature, have traditionally been celebrated with different kinds of spring rituals that also strengthen the close bond that humans have with the Earth and its cycles.

Plants have always been of tremendous importance for humans, as sustenance and raw materials, but also as symbols and the foundation of spiritual culture. For this work Vatanen has gathered plants from the local nature and her own garden. She captured the plants on cine film using the phytogram technique. Vatanen also used plant-based developer emulsion to develop some of the black-and-white film featured in the work. Vatanen’s work is an homage to the earth we walk on and the plants that our life is completely dependent on.

Vuoiŋŋat (Spirits) (2025) is a cameraless animation by visual artist and filmmaker Marja Viitahuhta brings to life the 1839 drawings of northern lights by French illustrator Louis Bévalet, drawn in the Alta region in Sápmi. This digital space is filled by the sound of the indigenous Sámi musician Ánnámáret yoiking the homeless spirits – Vuoiŋŋat – and her luohti is accompanied by Ilkka Heinonen’s jouhikko aka carelian bowed lyre and electronic music by Turkka Inkilä.

The work is dedicated to the memory of the Sámi ancestors who were exhumed from their graves in burial grounds in Sápmi approximately 100–150 years ago in the name of research carried out for racist reasons. Some of the remains have only recently been reburied in Sápmi.

Silhouette Festival
August 28 to September 5, 2026
Parc de la Butte du Chapeau Rouge
Paris, France

The Hybrid Selection will be hosted at the Pavillon Carré de Baudouin (121 rue de Ménilmontant, 75020 Paris).