Photo North – Northern Photographic Centre’s screening programme Questions About the North, Time and Human Ecology takes the viewer on a journey from springs bubbling in the middle of wilderness through small forest-encircled city suburbs to reflect on the complex and conflicted relationship between humans and their surroundings. The screening will take place in Polar Film Labs’ the Silver Record Experimental Film Festival.
In media artist Arttu Nieminen’s works, Ultima Kaltio and Awareness, the viewer is invited to a realm under the earth, as well as, surreal prophecies where awareness of mankind reaches to the heavens as a threat to God. In media artist Panu Johansson’s works, Who Has Seen the Wind? and Picturing a Micropolis: 96100-97690, we see glimpses and moments, memories and seasons, of decades of lives next to old and vivid forest areas as well as arctic city suburbs made of concrete. Artist Simi Ruotsalainen’s works, Lohijoki – The Salmon River and Bresnay le 18bre 1913, raise questions about ecological logistics, environmental debates, and the importance of communication. Finally, we see Leena Lehti’s experimental short film trilogy Existence dedicated to insects and life, and referring to the alarming decline in insect populations.
Panu Johansson (MA) is a media artist and an experimental filmmaker from Rovaniemi, Finland. He works with moving image, photography, and sound. Reoccurring themes in his work are memories, landscape, the history of experimental film as well as cultural history. Johansson collects images and sounds and uses “found footage” materials whenever possible. His works can be described as landscape films, diary films, or personal films.
Arttu Nieminen is a media artist based in Rovaniemi, Finland. The starting points of his works often revolve around forms that play with symmetry and the horizon, fragile arctic nature, and juxtapositions of omens and visions with contemporary phenomena. Environmental issues and humanity’s conflicted relationship with nature are also recurring themes in his work.
Leena Lehti (MA) is a media artist based in Tampere, Finland. Lehti is interested in the complex relationship between humans and their environment, nature, and their own bodies. In her works, she uses old, artisanal film techniques combined with digital video and photography.
Simi Ruotsalainen (MA) is a media artist, photographer, comic artist, and an independent filmmaker from Rovaniemi, Finland. The reoccurring themes in their work are related in the Northern and Artic life, environmental issues, gender, and equality. Ruotsalainen considers their art as a subtle form of activism, and North plays a pivotal role in their artworks – whatever they do, they do it northward bound. Currently Ruotsalainen is pursuing a Doctor of Arts degree about art activism.
All the artists’ works have been exhibited and shown widely in screenings, art exhibitions, and film festivals in Finland and abroad.
Chair of the board in Photo North, Kati Leinonen, is present at the festival to introduce the screening and tell about Photo North – Nordic Photographic Centre.
Programme:
Ultima Kaltio, Arttu Nieminen, FI, digital, 2021
Who Has Seen the Wind?, Panu Johansson, FI, Super-8 Film (Kodak Vision3 200T), 2023
Lohijoki – The Salmon River, Simi Ruotsalainen, FI, mixed format, 2022
Existence I, Leena Lehti, FI, hand processed 16 mm film, 2023–2024
Existence II, Leena Lehti, FI, hand processed 16 mm film, 2025
Existence III, Leena Lehti, FI, hand processed 16 mm film, 2025
Bresnay le 18bre 1913, Simi Ruotsalainen, FI, mixed format, 2025
Picturing a Micropolis: 96100-97690, Panu Johansson, FI, Super-8 Film (Kodak Vision3 200T), 2018
Awareness, Arttu Nieminen, FI, digital, 2019