MARJA HELANDER
Birds in the Earth, 2018
single channel HD video
10 minutes, 40 seconds
Courtesy of AV-arkki, the Centre for Finnish Media Art
Dolastallat – To Have a Campfire, 2016
single channel HD video
5 minutes, 48 seconds
Courtesy of AV-arkki, the Centre for Finnish Media Art
Suodji, 2020
single channel HD video
4 minutes, 25 seconds
Courtesy of AV-arkki, the Centre for Finnish Media Art
Riverside Park
Marja Helander’s playful video works explore the contradictions between the traditional Sámi ways of life and modern society. The Sámi are the Indigenous people of Europe; their homelands stretch across Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. In focusing on postcolonial topics in the Sámi area, Helander brings particular attention to the global mining industry and its impacts on ecology. She explores the deeply intertwined relationships between Sámi people and at-risk animals, including reindeer and willow grouse, and how these relationships have been impacted by forced borders, ecological destruction, and consumption. Although Helander recognizes that today’s encounter between nature and humankind is not harmonious, and can be destructive, her works emphasize the interdependence of people and nature. She uses aspects of surrealism, free association, Sámi legends, and Sámi customs and traditions to highlight the shifting relationships in the northern landscape.
Birds in the Earth is a melancholic story of the rights of Sámi people in today’s Finland, told through dance. The main characters are two young Sámi ballet students, Birit and Katja Haarla. They are shown dancing through Lapland and Helsinki. Contrasting the disciplined form of ballet with the natural Artic landscape, Helander brings to the fore contradicting worldviews of Sámi people and the state of Finland concerning the ownership of land and the sovereignty of the Sámi people. Movement has been an inherent part of the Sámi way of life, as they have developed a deeply intertwined relationship dependent on and shaped by reindeer migration. The introduction of forced borders, government intervention in reindeer herding, extensive mining projects, and privatization of land has been damaging to Sámi livelihoods and customs. At the same time, the film incorporates references to Sámi mythology, and through the choreography of the ballet dancers, embodies their relationships to willow grouse and reindeer, which are threatened due to climate change. Artic temperatures are warming at a rate that is four times higher than the rest of the world. Variable and inconsistent weather affects the snow, rain, and ice patterns which the Sámi have known intimately, and which also makes food sources inaccessible for the reindeer.
Dolastallat – To Have a Campfire is an experimental short film about a Sámi woman traversing the mountains in the Kola Peninsula in the northwest of Russia where she has a modern campfire with an unexpected creature. The vast landscape shows traces of the Arctic mining industry while referencing an old Sámi myth. It is also a portrait of the artist, who is seen in resplendent Sámi attire.
Helander takes us to various realms. Her short film Suodji (shelter) is simultaneously an experimental telling of an encounter during the COVID-19 pandemic and an adaptation of an old story from Utsjoki, Sápmi. The video shares a legend of the director’s relative, Ovllá-Ivvár Helander, and what he did during the Spanish flu epidemic in 1918 in Utsjoki. Ovllá-Ivvár decided to fool Death and take his fate into his own hands. Created in 2020, Marja Helander reflected on the similar threat we face in the form of the coronavirus. The protagonist of the film is walking in Ovllá-Ivvár’s footsteps. But in the end, who is really who?
Artist Biography
Marja Helander is a Finnish artist whose practice focuses on photography and video. She graduated from the University of Art and Design in Helsinki in 1999. Her earlier work explored Finnish and Sámi culture in relation to her mixed ancestry. Helander’s recent photographic work has focused on the northern landscape. Birds in the Earth won the Risto Jarva Prize and the main prize of the National Competition at Tampere Film Festival 2018. Helander has participated in solo and group exhibitions and her works have been acquired for various public collections in Finland and abroad.
A D D I T I O N A L R E S O U R C E S
Marja Helander
Birds in the Earth, 2018
single channel HD video
10 minutes, 40 seconds
Courtesy of AV-arkki, the Centre for Finnish Media Art
Marja Helander
Dolastallat – To Have a Campfire, 2016
single channel HD video
5 minutes, 48 seconds
Courtesy of AV-arkki, the Centre for Finnish Media Art
Marja Helander
Suodji, 2020
single channel HD video
4 minutes, 25 seconds
Courtesy of AV-arkki, the Centre for Finnish Media Art
Photos: Frank Luca, 2023