Untitled

Untitled is a site specific installation made to Suomenlinna, an old fortress island south of Helsinki.

While reading a book on the history of Suomenlinna, the following expression caught my eye in a picture caption refering to the Suomenlinna bombardment (1855): “This magnificent scene captured…”. In the accompanying lithograph, billowing sails and artillery smoke speak of sublime, heroic deeds, in the manner of historical paintings of naval battles, while the suffering and loss are submerged beneath the romance of warfare and destruction.

The Suomenlinna fortifications, with their massive vaults, stone embrasured walls and labyrinthine network of passages, lead the imagination into myth and legend. History and the passage of time have turned the cold machinery of war into exciting, almost fairytale-like soil for an adventure of the imagination.

The dual nature of Suomenlinna is particularly evident in the Piper Park, laid down at the end of the 18th century in keeping with the Romantic ideal landscape of the time, yet surrounded by massive fortress walls. This park, with its Lake of Love, its follies and its quasi-natural arrangement of flowers and trees, acted as a sort of ‘oasis’ amid the fearful engines of war.

The parallel presence of Romanticism and Realism in the past and present (together and separately) is a point of departure for my work.