single-channel video work, 9 min
techniques: drone, 360 cameras
Maailman katveessa / Máilmmittkus / At the Shadow of the World is a surreal journey into the complex relationship between Indigenous peoples and technological development. The work examines different stages of technology and their impact on Indigenous life, culture, and relationship to the land.
Modern technology is often seen as undermining sustainable, land-based ways of life. At the same time, the Sámi have also, at least in part, adopted and made use of technological transformation. The work moves within this tension and asks what kind of relationship contemporary technology has with Sámi culture today. Is it still possible to detach from technology, and under what conditions is participation in it morally justified, if the environment at the same time bears the consequences?
Underlying the work is Niillas Holmberg’s poetic reflection on the rapid integration of technology into Indigenous culture, setting ancestors and descendants, a slower way of life and the hectic present, living tradition and a world in which everything seems to become measurable, efficient, and commercialised against one another. The motorisation of reindeer herding in particular serves as an example of a development in which a technology adopted by one compels others to follow. When a livelihood becomes more expensive, it must also become profitable, and the trap closes.
In the collaboration between Hans Pieski and Arttu Nieminen, 2 distinct yet resonant northern visual worlds meet. Hans Pieski, a Sámi filmmaker from Utsjoki, creates visual narratives in which Indigenous culture, the Arctic environment, and surreal imagery intertwine. Arttu Nieminen, a media artist from Rovaniemi, is known for his mysterious, flowing, and meditative works that approach nature as a dreamlike and hallucinatory space. Together, their expression opens a view into the shadow of the world, an area where technology, culture, landscape, and memory collide.
The work is produced by R2 Productions and Dead Standing Tree Films and has been supported by ISFI, SKR, Taike, Avek, and Frame.