Photographer Naoko Chiban and visual artist Antti Ylönen will be talking about the rural areas of Japan and Finland, nature and the’ living environment of people. The discussion delves into the artists’ recently published photobooks, as well as the similarities and differences in their atmospheres. The conversation is moderated by producer Taija Jyrkäs from Photo North.
Chiba and Ylönen met ten years ago at an arts project in Fukushima, Japan. Their collaboration has continued with collaborative exhibitions in Oulu (2018) and Tokio (2023). Chiba photographs old stories she has heard from her family and other people living in the rural areas. Ylönen focuses on the beauty of decay in a built environment.
Naoko Chiba was born in the Tōhoku region’s Iwate Prefecture and studied fine arts and art education at Iwate University and the Gunma Institute of Contemporary Art. The “My Father’s House” project, begun in 1998, has become her life’s work; through it, she explores the depopulating countryside of Iwate, as well as its history and culture.
The works by Ii-based visual artist Antti Ylönen are a form of photographic painting, or, as he himself defines them, “urban nature photography.” A sense of disintegration and oblivion seems to permeate Ylönen’s photographs. Quiet areas take shape around specific details, telling stories that speak more of the past than of the future.
Curator, art historian Heta Kaisto:
“I have found the long-standing collaboration and friendship between the artists to be deeply resonant. That is a hallmark of ecological and sustainable contemporary environmental art. The photographic series Rajamaat (Borderlands) explores the slow transformation of depopulating villages in Finland and Japan. Both nations are burdened by aging populations and emptying rural areas, as well as a fraying sense of community that drives individuals into isolation. The bonds anchoring people to their world and environment are shifting; the intergenerational transmission of homes, skills, worldviews, and emotional ties is failing to take hold, and connections to past generations are fraying. These themes lie at the heart of global projects exploring environmental trauma and the concept of solastalgia.”
Talking Pictures: Naoko Chiban and Antti Ylönen
9.9.2026 – 18.00
Cultural Centre Valve’s cafe
Event picture: Antti Ylönen, Kitakata, Japan 15.11.2015 and 10.11.2015