The Nordic House had the privilege of hosting the Finnish artist Saara Ekström. Saara is an admirer of Icelandic nature and came to Iceland to collect material for her art and be inspired.
“I’m very happy to be invited to the Nordic House to work on a project connected to the earth’s strata and geological cycles of time. Iceland is one of the most fascinating places I’ve been to.
Driving in these vast and spellbinding landscapes takes my breath away, and I experience physical and mental vertigo. Nature here is so alive, so intense, beautiful, gentle, and violent, and it feels as if I am looking both into the beginning and the end at the same time.
The material I’m working on here will be a part of a 16mm film, which branches to several directions, tapping into the metabolism of a planet, where prehistoric forests digest into fossil fuels and new islands burst forth. The processes are often extremely gradual, but nonetheless, everything is in constant flux. Even mountains are not eternal: they too breathe, migrate, grow, erode – and disappear – naturally or artificially. We, humans, are firmly connected to this chain of events, which makes us into who we are. To not recognize our link to and dependency of nature is a fatal misconception.
The work, that has been filmed in several other locations and museum archives, will have its premiere in a solo exhibition at Helsinki Art Hall, Finland, in 2022. It will also be shown here at The Nordic House, for which I’m super grateful!I’d very much like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude towards the generous, warm, skilled, and lovely staff of the Nordic House, and the Matr restaurant <3!”