Fellmann's Field

Kaisa Salmi

Kaisa Salmi’s large-scale performance ”Fellman’s Field - The Living Monument for 22.000 People” focuses on the biggest concentration camp in the Finnish history, that of Fellman’s Field in the Finnish Civil War in 1918. Over 10.000 people from all over the country took part of the performance. In 1918, 22.000 soldiers and citizens were gathered in the prison camp in Lahti. The prisoners were forced to spend almost a week outdoors without food or drink before they were sent to smaller prison camps in old army barracks. Thousands of prisoners died. This documentary film triptych combines the performance, stories of the five main characters and a poetic text voiced by dozens of volunteers. Kaisa Salmi attempted to create a framework for working through the Finnish Civil War in a safe, collective, and constructive way. At the same time, the work shows solidarity to people involved with the current civil wars in different countries.

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Production Year
2013
Duration
00:23:44
Type
Installation
Tags
civil wars, documentarism, experimental films, Finnish Civil War, interactive art, media art, participatory art, performance (art forms), prison camps, reading, traumas, video art, video installations, wars
Original Title
Fellmanin pelto
Finnish Title

Fellmanin pelto

English Title

Fellmann's Field

Production Countries
Finland
Dialogue
Yes
Sound
Yes
Cast
Kaisa Salmi (Author), Heikki Färm (Cinematographer), Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle (Composer), Kaisa Salmi (Director), Heikki-Pekka Vaara (Editor), Kaisa Salmi (Producer), Kaisa Salmi (Script), Tuomas Skopa (Sound Design), Aino Niiranen (Actor), Jarkko Mikkola (Actor), Timo Hurme (Actor), Suvi-Sini Peltola (Actor), Pekka T Rajala (Actor), Tapani Kalliomäki (Actor), Artlab (Funder), Aalto yliopisto (Funder), Samuel Hubers konststiftelse (Funder), AVEK (Funder), Suomen Kulttuurirahasto (Funder), Lahden taidemuseo (Funder)
Press Photos

Kaisa Salmi

Born: 1968

https://www.kaisasalmi.com

Kaisa Salmi (born 1968) is a Finnish community, environmental and spatial artist who is completing her doctoral thesis in contemporary art at Aalto University. Salmi is known for e.g. large-scale and eye-catching environmental art works, such as her huge arrangement of gerbera daisies on the Parliament steps in Helsinki and at Turku cathedral, the huge “plastic avalanche” sculpture that was made out of plastic waste and installed in front of Kamppi shopping centre in central Helsinki, and ”Fellman’s field”, which was a large performance involving 10,000 participants in the town of Lahti. A film was also made of this. In August 2013 she covered a street in the middle of the town of Oulu with 34,000 rose bushes. Salmi’s work has been recognized with a number of awards and she was chosen to be the Finnish Institute’s Finnish artist in Estonia in 2011.

3 works

Pump Room

Kaisa Salmi
2019 / 00:22:09 / Single channel

Field of Blood

Kaisa Salmi
2016 / 00:07:28 / Single channel

Fellmann's Field

Kaisa Salmi
2013 / 00:23:44 / Installation