BACK TO NATURE – Martti Matilainen

The artwork series “Back to Nature” explores the theme of disappearing small villages, farms, and houses in the countryside. Many small farms and dwellings have been inhabited for generations, once full of life, but are now slowly vanishing back into nature. Some traces and remnants of this past way of life can still be seen, but they are gradually fading away forever. In some cases, all that remains is a moss-covered pile of stones in the middle of the forest.

This series also serves as a statement on a long-standing trend in which small rural communities are being deprived of the possibility to sustain life. Services and jobs are continuously centralized in large towns and cities, leaving smaller rural areas without the means to survive. These images are a reflection of the current Finnish countryside, which will increasingly look like this in the future.

I walk in the forest with my dogs every day, and the entire idea and atmosphere of this series was born there. It is a composition of what I see and experience, of dreams and memories—yet it remains rooted in reality.

A philosophical idea behind the series is also a reminder of human mortality and the impermanence of all things.

Martti Matilainen

Originally trained as a sculptor at the Fine Arts Academy of Finland, Martti Matilainen has in recent years primarily focused on photographic art. He utilizes his extensive education and, in particular, his diverse and colorful life experiences to create dreamlike works, often centered around the human experience. His photographic collages cover a wide range of themes, often carrying a subtle message and reflecting on life in general.

Matilainen belongs to a rare and endangered species: the bohemian artist.

Translated with ChatGPT