Selected from the best in current and recent artist practice across Finland for our drill-down national focus upon a land of light, shadow and waking dream, the Finnish Art Agency present a programme of shorts that address poetic notions of narrative, image and medium.
Programme
Hannaleena Heiska
Ridestar, 2010
6mm film transferred to HDCam and Blu-ray
3 min 12 sec
Why awaken me, oh breath of spring?
Why awaken me?
On my brow, I feel your caresses,
and yet, very close is the time
of storms and of sorrows!
– Ah! Non mi ridestar! Aria from Werther, by Jules Massenet
Today We Live, 2012
HD video
7 min 17 sec
Anonymous group portrait Today We Live is shot in a rock club. Slow motion footage underlines the dancing audience’s fleeing motions and facial expressions. Erik Satie’s orchestral music makes a counterpoint to the dancer’s aggressive movements.
Paola Suhonen
Poem Portrait of Nina, 2009–2016
Digital and hand developed 16 mm film to digital
4 min 32 sec
Voice: Ron Jeremy and Blanche Hartman (Nina’s mother)
Poem Portrait of Nina, Desert, 2009–2016
16 mm film to digital
6 min 43 sec
Voice: Venus Luxe
I met legendary feminist, sex educator and pornstar Nina Hartley while working in New York. We developed a close friendship and I started documenting her life in short, experimental visual vignetttes and long recordings about love, sex, porn industry and life. – Paola Suhonen
Nastja Säde Rönkkö
This Sea of Mine (Mytilidae), 2013
Performance for video (HD)
4 min 37 sec
Standing in an anonymous swimming pool – a simulacrum of sea – first crab claws, then mussel shells, prawns, shrimp and squid are added to this stagnant soup.
Take Me Anywhere, 2016
HD video
10 min
Video/edit Luke Turner
I was riding a horse without a bridle or saddle. I was blindfolded and taken wherever the horse wanted to go. The piece was filmed in Joshua Tree National Park in California.
Elena Näsänen
Whoosh, 2016
HD video
7 min 50 sec
Sometimes you need to step into the unknown to confront yourself. An old Art Nouveau villa attracts 17 year-old girl. She escapes from school’s drawing class to explore the villa more closely.
Round, 2011
HD video
8 min 36 sec
The same story is played both by a man and a woman character. The main character drinks alone at the bar. Suddenly the music stops. Time stops. Only a ray of light slowly travels across the floor. The main character walks out to the street.
