Those Who Kept the Light / Seaweed

Those Who Kept the Light is a series of videos exploring our dependent relationship with the sea, in a context of queer and feminist maritime narratives. The narratives are told through the context of human and other-than-human love stories; the wind or the ocean are seen as entities with consciousness, emotions and a voice. Those Who Kept the Light investigates the importance of vulnerability, desire and memory through myths and open-ended narratives. Within the wider framework of climate emergency and the role of the fragile ecosystems of the ocean, the project explores the collective mindset of imagination and longing. Unfolding epic and barren Nordic landscapes, the narrator leads the viewer into spaces and places of solace, empowerment and emotion. Those Who Kept the Light is a 10-screen film installation with site-specific sculptures. The project is based on ten poetic scripts that Nastja Säde Rönkkö wrote while she was traveling in Denmark and Norway in 2020–2021. The work can be shown as an installation or as a single-screen version.