Last week I
travelled to Lapland for a few days and stayed at a place called Kakslauttanen near Saariselkä. It is an interesting place for
several reasons: The first being that as a Finnish national I could
not find one person who spoke Finnish in the entire establishment,
making it one of the oddest multicultural melting pots I have ever
visited, particularly since the whole point of visiting Kakslauttanen
is to get to know Finnish Lapland.
The second interesting thing about Kakslauttanen was the fact that it is filled to the brim with decorative and at times practical art. Unfortunately the artists who created the works are not so visible, but with a bit of googling I was able to find the reason why all this sculptural work can be found there. It is the Arctic Arts Week that is organised every year at the apex of summer and autumn. Artists from around the world make their way to Kakslauttanen to create new works, as part of this residency like week, the artists are asked to leave their works at Kakslauttanen at the end of their stay. The week is hosted by the owner of Kakslauttanen, Jussi Eiramo, who covers half of the cost of travel for artists and offers free accommodation and food.
KAKSLAUTTANEN,
FI-99830 SAARISELKÄ, FINLAND
Saariselkä also had
an interesting bit of informative art showcased at a small museum on
the upper floor of the Saariselkä Tourist Information centre called
Siula. The exhibition is called DestinationNorthernmost Europe and primarily
shows factual information about Lapland and its nature. There was
also a series of videos being played in an panoramic video auditorium
with 7 screens. This was possibly by far the most conceptual
construction of nature films I have ever witnessed. It was fantastic!
The problem was that it
was not meant as a conceptual view of wildlife and the yearly cycle,
but had become one probably due to bad maintenance. I fell in love with it
immediately! The screens were in the wrong order, the colours were
off and there was an alarming amount of still-life animals pasted
onto moving images of Lapland. In short it was a hilarious, slightly
dizzying 20 minutes of my life.
Another thing I fell in
love with was the explanation texts used for the photographs. My
favourite quote in a text was “The artistic abilities of the wind
are not too shabby either – blowing sand can accomplish a whole
lot.” this was in reference to natural rock formations. Whoever
wrote the texts for this exhibition, my hats off to you! You have given
me a wonderful new way to discuss nature in terms generally reserved
for contemporary art.
