salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears
single channel version, 2024, 13:59
If I crashed, I would bleed.
And if I bled,
I would be close to you,
if I bled enough, I would be with you.
Tears and drops of blood and sweat create a tragic story about lost love and its chaotic emotional consequences.
Nastja Säde Rönkkö‘s (b. 1985) video installation is driven by a poetic text: intimate, ambiguous verses tell not only about love, but also about lost and found identity, a scarred planet and our ever-changing world.
Nastja Säde Rönkkö, who works with media art, text, installations, performances and many different communities, received the third Below Zero Prize (2023), granted by Beaconsfield Gallery London, Serlachius Museums and the Finnish Institute in the UK and Ireland.
The single channel version of the work has been edited this year for Forum Box. The entire installation seen in Beaconsfield Gallery will open in Serlachius Museum 7.9.2024—23.3.2025.
Nastja Säde Rönkkö is an artist working with video, performance, installation and text. Her projects investigate the relationship between the digital era, power, humanity and the future of our planet. She is particularly fascinated with how concepts such as love, slowness or affection can be silent yet radical ways to be and act in the world. Her practice dreams about the future and explores presence through politics and poetics of emotion.
Rönkkö has exhibited and performed internationally in places such as Somerset House, London, Sydney Opera House, Sydney, SXSW, Austin, TX, Royal Academy of Arts, London, Glasgow International, FACT, Foundation for Art and Technology, Liverpool, Museum of Moving Image, New York, Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki and BMoCA Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Boulder, CO. Recent solo exhibitions include Those Who Kept the Light, Rønnebæksholm Kunsthall, Denmark (2022) and Salt in Our Blood, in Our Sweat, In Our Tears, Beaconsfield Gallery, London (2023).
She has been artist-in-residence in Somerset House Studios, London (2018-2019), Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge (2018) and Matadero Madrid (2016). Recent screenings include Lago Film Festival, Italy (2023), Tampere Short Film Festival, Finland (2023), Helsinki International Film Festival (2017, 2021, 2022) and Ivy Film Festival, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA (2018).
Recent Nominations and festivals include International Competition Lago Film Festival, Italy and Tampere Film Festival National Competition (2023). Her work has won several awards including Best Experimental Film at Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival, Best Editing, NYC Indie Film Awards, Best Short Film and Best Director in Short Film, Marietta International Film Festival and Seeing the Bigger Picture Award, American Documentary Film Festival and Film Fund (2018). She is the 35th recipient of the Young Artist of the Year 2019 title and award in Finland and recipient of Below Zero Art Prize (2023).
Forthcoming exhibitions include The Irreplaceable Human, Louisiana Art Museum, Denmark (2023-2024), Serlachius Museum Mänttä, and Seinäjoki Kunsthall (2024).
Mediabox is Forum Box gallery’s space dedicated to media art. The program is created together with AV-arkki.
There are three steps to the media art space Mediabox, but the work is also available for viewing on a tablet by request. Please don’t hestitate to contact our staff if Mediabox is inaccessible for you.