What does one-to-one art bring to you as an artist?

I often make (very impractical) objects that are used in various ways in performance. The object itself often becomes the stage and the medium for interaction. One-on-one encounters are often at the heart of it.

Who is the one you wish to experience your work?

The barn is especially suited for those craving for the odd, but, in my view, it can just as well be experienced by absolutely anyone with even the slightest leaning toward the barn.

Description of the work: What happens in it?

In this artwork you can surrender in front of a barn. A barn landscaped is placed over your head like rotting VR-glasses smelling of moss, made out of old, grey and dead pine tree. Through them, you can enter a journey, the very same journey that the barn once travelled. You will be transported to Ostrobotnia, through a video experience.

Barn landscape is a miniaturized version of a Finnish barn – a traditional wooden structure used to store hay, grain or animal feed. In the 1960s there were roughly over a million barns in Finland. Once a common sight, especially in the fields of Ostrobotnia, they are gradually becoming a rare relic of the past, a subject of nostalgic paintings of rural Finland.

The Barn is a reaction to a tradition that is now vanishing. It is a strange and humoristic resurrection of one building type, a landmark of the Finnish rural landscape, that is even a cliché painting subject. The barn itself has been built in Pietarsaari as an adaptation of local barns. In miniature form, and as an object you can conveniently carry with you,  it allows for a variety of uses – for example, this time the participant can try it out by themselves and experience a part of its journey. 

The duration of the video is 10 min and whole ceremony approximately 15 min. The video is wordless, and the ceremony can be directed mostly without words.