MULTIHUMINAA – Sami Maalas

Multihumina is an impractical testament, which, as a poetic, holistic interpretation, seeks to outline the inheritance one person leaves for their community and descendants, in all its murmuring rawness, madness, and perhaps even its beauty. The multifaceted whole extends from the miracle of birth to the hum that cuts through worlds, where the simultaneous presence of death, joy, and laughter also resides.

In recent years, I have mainly carried out participatory collective processes, such as the example of Kelluva Puutarha in Tampere’s Pispala. Within the chain of events, the actions that create the collective narrative have created tensions in public spaces, with the goal of challenging people to become active participants and creating a vibrant urban culture. Multihumina presents, through video installations and soundscapes, a more personal collection, from joy and wonder to disappointment, fear, disgust, and sorrow—reflecting the human experience of birth and the inevitable limitations of bodily existence.

The exhibition features a diverse range of works, all united by the common theme of reflecting on the meaning and purpose of life, raising questions such as: What are you needed for? What do I need all of this for? And more broadly, what kind of testament are we leaving for future generations? The centerpiece of the exhibition is Personal Eldorado, or Gold Ecstasy, a performance I carried out in Gwangju, South Korea, last June, which explores the human quest for material happiness and the apparent control over life.

The video works build an audiovisual whole that communicates through both coincidence and intent, where the relationship between an individual’s inner world and the community’s demands and freedoms is explored. It invites reflection on the kind of life we are expected to adapt to, and ultimately, on the existential positioning of the individual, and the feelings experienced in this ever-murmuring space.

I graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in 2010, specializing in space and time arts. In addition to collective processes, my work manifests through paintings, video works, performances, and installations.

Translated with ChatGPT