Juolahti & Mäkelä
haavat (aspens, wounds)
12.2.-8.3.2026
just before his death, the hare tells
how the dove years ago
wakes him up from his sleep in the morning
looks him in the eyes, sparkling
has just seen the aspens
clattering in the wind
rising to great heights like a cathedral
the work explores remembering by breaking down and reorganizing place and material
materials used: paper made fully or partly using leftover sketch paper from performances, paper made fully or partly from aspen bast, a cube made out of spruce battens, 16 mm black-and-white film shot in an aspen forest in spring, summer, and autumn, and hand developed and dyed using aspen leaves collected during the same season, 16 mm black-and-white film shot in an aspen forest in winter and hand developed with a chemical developer
Minerva Juolahti is a sound and performance artist working with the human body, sound, space, and paper. Their works are performative and conceptual spatial gestures centered around sound. Juolahti has presented their works in various contexts and events, including documenta fifteen, New Performance Turku, Kiilan Äänipäivät, Sola Festival, MISS READ Berlin, and the Center for Deep Listening. In addition to traditional art venues, the artist has created performative gestures in places such as a former maternity hospital, a mountain, a forest, metro stations, and a bathroom. Currently, Juolahti is working on their artistic research dissertation at the Theatre Academy, focusing on forgetting as a performer’s performative event. Juolahti graduated with a Master of Arts degree in Theatre and Drama from the Live Art and Performance Studies program at the Theatre Academy in 2024. Their background is in visual arts, social sciences, and folklore studies. Juolahti is a member of the Rindamus collective, a cyclical multi-year residency process in collaboration with the Mustarinda residency, as well as the Station of Commons collective, which critically examines spaces created by technology. Juolahti lives and works in Helsinki. Their father died during the making of the work.
Joona Mäkelä is a filmmaker and performing artist. He works with analog film and various experimental film development and dyeing techniques. In his works, he explores time, memory, and people’s relationship with the environment, alongside themes drawn from his personal experience. For his experimental essay film The Fleeting Horizon (2024), he developed the 16 mm black-and-white film by hand using a developer partly made from spruce needles. Drawing parallels between the grief caused by biodiversity loss and the grief of losing an unborn child, the film premiered at the DocPoint Film Festival in Helsinki in 2024. Mäkelä’s works have been shown at various events and venues, including the Vienna Shorts Film Festival in Austria, Tampere Film Festival, Ateneum Art Museum, and Helsinki Design Week. Mäkelä is one of the founding members of the artist-run film laboratory Elävän kuvan laboratorio based in Helsinki and a member of the Rindamus collective, which works at the Mustarinda residency for a month each year. Mäkelä has studied documentary filmmaking at Aalto University. He lives and works in Helsinki.
thank you
Elävän kuvan laboratorio, Helsingin Paperipaja, Kone Foundation, our children, family, friends
