Eija Mäkivuoti
Joen kanssa / Tillsammans med älven / With the River
A border-crossing watery work-of-art in many parts
I am working by/with the flooding Torne river in HaparandaTornio, at the border of Sweden-Finland. Photo by Matti Maikola.
Joen kanssa / Tillsammans med älven / With the River is my artistic process and work-of-art that I have been working with since 2021 and it is part of my larger, long-term, multidimensional storytelling practice. In it I study both through individual artistic work and together through different kinds of collaborations or companionships, like a group of Nordic artists, different kinds of border-crossings and being by/with and thinking-with different waters in the Nordic region. The different artistic works-of-art, artistic processes and collaborations take place in HaparandaTornio and the Tornio River Valley on both sides of the border, as well as in Helsinki, Tórshavn and other locations in Finland and the Faroe Islands.
The artistic work in Joen kanssa / Tillsammans med älven / With the River unfolds in many parts. In pt 1: Joen kanssa / Tillsammans med älven / With the River I work individually with themes that entangle women’s work/being by the waters in the Tornio River Valley and on the Faroe Islands with historical archival research. The border river Tornionjoki (Torne river) and the seas around Tórshavn and Syðrugøta entwine in my storytelling/artistic practice as I am thinking-with the river/with the seas. In part 2: Joen kanssa / Tillsammans med älven I worked collaboratively by the Torne river in HaparandaTornio with the Haparanda-based-artist Henri Hiltunen, read more about it here. In part 3 or as we have started to call it with the group, With the River Collective, a group of Nordic artists from different art fields, and representing different generations, collaborate to build a multidimensional space for a fluid border-crossing collective artistic work in HaparandaTornio, Tórshavn and Helsinki. The collective works both online, remotely and on-site. The collective’s work began on-site by the border river Torne that flows between Sweden and Finland and in the Torne River Valley from HaparandaTornio up to the river’s origins Torne lake (Tornionjärvi / Torneträsk) and to Abisko national park (first with the support of the Nordic Culture Fund and Tjaldur and this work continues with the funding from Kone Foundation). Read more about this here.
My aim is to create a fluid artistic individual practice and a space/spaces for long-term, border-crossing artistic work both individually and in different companionships or collaborations that take shape in multidimensional ways both on location in the Nordic region and throughout virtual spaces. My individual artistic work and the different parts, i.e. collaborations are presented and come together as art exhibitions / events / get-to-togethers / encounters (e.g. artist talks, workshops, community dinners etc.) on location and in art books/publications. During these working processes micro-stories and documentation have been published on social media / online.
My artistic work draws from feminist new materialist, critical art pedagogical and decolonial thinking as well as situated knowledges, visual culture and culture studies. I aim for close encounters/meetings, heart-felt collaborations, exchange/entangling of skills/thoughts/knowledges with each other but also with the communities I work in as well as with the partners I work together with (both human and non-human companions). For me it is important to acknowledge that the different works-of-art and the knowledge created through and in different kinds of companionships is co-created.
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My individual artistic work with the different parts of this multidimensional art and artistic process and the work-in-progress has been supported by:
The Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland / Svenska kulturfonden @kulturfonden
Arts Promotion Centre Finland / Taiteen edistämiskeskus @taikegram
Culture Moves Europe Mobility Programme / Funded by the European Union @creative.eu @culturemoveseurope
Society of Swedish Literature in Finland / SLS – Svenska litteratursällskapet i Finland @slsfinland
The Swedish-Finnish Cultural Foundation / Kulturfonden för Sverige och Finland @fondensverigefinland
The Finnish Danish Cultural Foundation / Suomalais-tanskalainen kulttuurirahasto
Letterstedtska föreningen – Finska avdelningen (mobility grant)
Mine and Henri Hiltunen’s collaborative work in With the River, pt. 2 has been supported by:
Tornedalsrådet – Tornionlaakson neuvosto
The collaborative artistic group work in With the River Collective is supported by:
Nordic Culture Fund / Nordisk kulturfond
Tjaldur – The friendship Association Finland-Faroe Islands
Koneen säätiö / Kone Foundation
