MNEMONIA
INSTALLATION OF TWO SHORT FILMS, sound AND OBJECTS
“Landscapes, as well as the bodies dwelling in them, carry signs of what has been.”
- Marianne Mäkelin
Mnemonia (2021 - 2024 currently work-in-progress) is a collaboration project between designer-researcher Emilia Tikka, reindeer herder Oula A Valkeapää and his artist-researcher partner Leena Valkeapää. The artwork is an installation of stories in three temporalities, where centuries-old migration in the rhythm of the reindeer intertwines human, reindeer and landscape. The nomadic reindeer herding culture is in a danger of vanishing in the Finnish Sápmi, but the land and the reindeer carries the shared memories of the past. The installation includes films and objects, moving between past, present and speculative futures. The work combines research on the contemporary bioscience of transgenerational epigenetic memories and tacit knowledge on human reindeer relations. The outcome does not separate bioscience and reindeer cosmologies but rather weaves them together as stories of hopeful futures.
bottaZat
Oula A Valkeapää is a reindeer herder who lives in the reindeer's time and follows their movement. The everyday rituals of living in the landscape keeps the ancient connection between the herder and the herd alive. The land carries the memories of past migrations of the herders and their herds. Nevertheless the migration in reindeer's natural rhythm has become difficult in the current setting of the Sápmi in the Finnish Sub-Arctic. Some of the complex reasons for that include modernization, border politics and warming climate. Oula`s autobiographical short film indicates how the vanishing of the nomadic way of life and migrating in the reindeer`s natural rhythm, leads into fading of the ancient connection and between herder, reindeer and landscape.
CREW:
Director: Oula A Valkeapää
Camera: Oula A valkeapää
Producer: Emilia Tikka
Script: Oula A and Leena Valkeapää
Sound and Music: Oula A Valkeapää
Editing: Emilia Tikka and Eduardo Mattos
Sound Editing: Ossi Oikari
Special Sounds: Niklas Eurén
Photo by Oula A Valkeapää
Photo by Oula A Valkeapää
MEMORIES OF THE HERD
The second part of Mnemonia, is a short film in a form of magical realism. The story takes place in the year 2102, when the Gulf Stream has collapsed and arctic climate slowly cools after decades without snow. Only few tame reindeer have survived the storms, echoing the long lost nomadic culture. A scientist is wandering through empty beaches of the arctic ocean. She is searching for remains of a by-gone reindeer who used to migrate in the area. She believes that the reindeer carries epigenetic memories of her ancestors in its bones and therefore could help her to remember.
CREW:
Director: Emilia Tikka
Director of Photography: Eduardo Mattos
Script: Emilia Tikka with Oula A Valkeapää
Editing: Emilia Tikka and Eduardo Mattos
Sound Design: Ossi Oikari
Sound Recording: Niklas Euren
Voiceover recording: Lauri Mäntynen
Further project partners:
The project has been funded within the frame of a 2-year art and research project ART4MED (2020-2022)
ART4MED fosters encounters between art practices and biomedical health research. 5 partners from 5 EU countries probe the possibilities for expanding notions and methodologies of techno-medicine / medical sciences / health-related sciences, in order to democratize these fields and open them up to creative experimentation. Emilia Tikka was an artist in residence at Bioart Society (FI) together with Oula A and Leena Valkeapää as her collaborative partners. All hosting institutions include: MAKERY (FR), WAAG (NL), LABORATORY FOR AESTHETICS AND ECOLOGY (DK), BIOART SOCIETY (FI), AND KERSNIKOVA (SI). PUBLICATION OF THE ART4MED INCLUDING MNEMONIA: HTTPS://ART4MED.EU/PUBLICATIONS/