Small town girl (escape sketches)
2019
Video, 17:17 min
In collaboration with Saara Kanerva Tamminen
Sound by Johanna Tarkkanen / GodWhite Productions
There was a town, two peaks and a river splitting the valley. When we were little, we swam in the river and the river was our friend. When we dived into the brown stream, we were told to keep our mouths shut.
Grown-ups laid down their secrets in the river, believing that the murky water would not see. But the river saw everything. It saw loved ones deceive, minds break, houses burn.
We grew up and understood that the river saw us, too. We decided to flee the town, out of the river’s reach.
But we had already drunk the river’s water. It saw us from the inside.
– Saara Kanerva Tamminen
Sound landscape Brown Waters, variation of the organ piece White Waters / GodWhite Productions
Organ recorded in Porvoo church
Thank you: Porvoon seurakunta, Svenska kulturfonden, Jokikatu 10, Iona Roisin
Aino Aksenja (b.1986) is an artist who looks for escape routes and tries to grow roots. Life and art intertwine in works that are site-specific installations, made-up rituals and stories. Aksenja is based in Helsinki, and her works have been shown in Finland, Sweden, Russia, Germany, Portugal, USA and South Korea.