TELL THE WORLD – Mari Ljokkoi
The “Tell the World” exhibition features two documentary video works, both based on interviews with groups of people. Additionally, the viewer can participate in the exhibition by drawing.
The video works on display are Maailma on ympyrä (2017) and Kalevala 2.0 (2013). Both works share a multi-voiced narrative and aim to present collective thoughts. The starting point of Maailma on ympyrä was the idea that while the world exists as a physical reality, it is also a thought in our minds. In other words, the work addresses the collective idea of the world, particularly what we imagine the world to be. For this piece, 63 people of various ages were interviewed and asked to draw the entire world on paper and explain what they had drawn. Afterward, they were invited to add what they believed to be good or bad in the world and what works in it. The interview material was compiled into a script, from which physical representations of the things and situations people spoke about were filmed. Maailma on ympyrä consists of three episodes: the goodness of the world, the evil of the world, and what works in the world. Different ways of conceptualizing the world are revealed in the drawings that appear between the episodes.
The second work in the exhibition, Kalevala 2.0, is a documentary narrative about how reality transforms into stories or is forgotten across generations. In the audio track of this video work, young adults—third-generation Karelian migrants—discuss what life was like in Karelia before, what it was like to leave as evacuees, how they adapted to a new place, and how little they actually know about it all. The piece is filmed using three-dimensional paper collages built from old photographs. The stories of Kalevala 2.0 were compiled by interviewing third-generation Karelian migrants. In addition to the video works, visitors to the exhibition have the opportunity to draw their own world following the same instructions given to the interviewees in Maailma on ympyrä.
Mari Ljokkoi is a visual artist working mainly in the intersection of video art and documentary film. She graduated with a degree in fine arts from Tampere University of Applied Sciences in 2013 and with a Master’s in Fine Arts from Aalto University in 2018.
Translated with ChatGPT