
Risto-Pekka Blom’s Interceptor (2018), Saara Ekström’s Amplifier (2017), and Mox Mäkelä’s Host Sapiens (2018) are screened at IFF Pacific Meridian. The 16th International Film Festival of Asian-Pacific countries in Vladivostok is held from September 21–27.
Risto-Pekka Blom’s Interceptor is a short film alluding to a historical event. In 1989, an unknown person halted the column of armored troops at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China. On the previous day, a demonstration that originated as a student protest, was violently suppressed by the army. In democracies, the use of brutal force has been replaced by structural violence, where the power is centered around a small economical elite pursuing their own interests. The main purpose of the political system is to maintain these power structures. Risto-Pekka Blom‘s video art and experimental short films have been exhibited in festivals and events in over twenty countries. His film Theme Park (2015) has won the Main Prize at Tampere Film Festival and Helsinki Short Film Festival in 2015.
Mox Mäkelä’s Host Sapiens is an experimental ecocritical video art poem. “Mass extinction is here. Our plate will be soon bigger than our planet. Our choice.” Mox Mäkelä (b. 1958) is a conceptual artist active since 1978. Mäkelä’s art has been shown widely in different venues and contexts, e.g. in the Maritime museum of Finland and at international film and art festivals. In her ecocritical films and installations, Mäkelä examines the clash between nature and human nature within the marine milieu. Another part of her oeuvre is “idiot ibidem”, a long-term extended project that studies a literary historical chain of events with full methodological freedom and diversity.
Interceptor and Host Sapiens are included in the screening “Thinkers” of the short film selection “In the Open”, on Sunday, September 23, at 21:00.
Saara Ekström’s Amplifier is an experimental short film. Time inevitably moves from past to future, passing the present moment. Mankind encloses to time its marks, stains and ruins. On the verge of vast changes time acts abnormally. It leaks, folds and fractures, allowing things belonging elsewhere, to the otherworldly, to permeate itself. In the 8mm film the Helsinki Olympic Stadium represents a historical paradigm shift. Completed in 1938 the building outlines pure functionalist architecture and stands as a landmark for optimistic utopia and the oblivion on man’s neglect of history. Saara Ekström lives and works in Turku, Finland. She was a candidate for the Ars Fennica Award in 2002 and the artist of the year of Helsinki Festival in 2005. She received AVEK prize for Media Art in 2018. Ekström’s extensive solo exhibitions have been seen at Amos Anderson Art Museum in 2005 and at Contemporary Art Museum Kiasma in 2011. Her works are represented in many collections in Finland and internationally.
At IFF Pacific Meridian, Amplifier is included in the screening “Moving Forward”, on Monday, September 24, at 20:55.
The 16th IFF Pacific Meridian, September 21–27 2018, Vladivostok, Russia
More information: IFF Pacific Meridian