Bálvvosbáiki (worship site) is an exhibition composed of video works and based on the yoiks of the musician Ánnámáret. The works have been created in cooperation by Ánnámáret, the media artist Marja Viitahuhta and musicians Ilkka Heinonen (bowed lyre jouhikko) and Turkka Inkilä (elektronic music).

The works reflect on how the Sámi world-view is manifested in our time. According to this world-view, humans are part of their environment – not owners but users of the environment who take into consideration the legacy of the past generations and foster the conditions for life for the future generations. The land, the plants, the animals and humanity form together a whole the elements of which depend on each other.

To represent Sápmi, the Land of the Sámi, the artists use experimental and searching techniques in their works. The image and the sound enter a dialogue with each other, forming mutual horizons and meanings of interpretation and creating space for and accompanying each other.

The exhibition, produced by the Sámi Museum Siida, is open at Siida until September 29, 2024.

Exhibition, “Northern Taiga − Land of Willow Grouse and Rock Ptarmigan”, shows survivors, Willow Grouse and Rock Ptarmigan, which have perfectly adapted to the northern taiga over the times, in their own habitats.

The exhibition shows survivors, Willow Grouse and Rock Ptarmigan, which have perfectly adapted to the arctic taiga over the times, in their own habitats.

Found in winter on the top of extreme cold and snow-covered fells, where only few animals thrive, Rock Ptarmigan is an example of a real survivor searching something to eat. Willow Grouse, better adapted to lower terrains and valleys of thick snow, finds buds and twigs more easily. Both birds blend with their pure white winter plumage to the snow so perfectly that finding them to take photographs requires sometimes a long-lasting search without any guarantee of  success.

Night less summer nights, a period when the sun doesn’t set at all in arctic, provide for a photographer a wonderful possibility to take beautiful, orange-colored pictures through the whole night. After changing their summer plumage birds may sometimes disappear completely into the colors of the environment while resting, so the photographer must be careful when searching the birds and to avoid any disturbance.

Global warming is already bringing challenges to both species as the snowy season shortens, and the color of their plumage is not necessarily optimal. Challenges are also caused when the predators like red fox spread higher to the fells.

The photos of the exhibition were taken in municipality of Inari and Sodankylä in the coldest conditions of winter and close to midnight in night less summer night.

Sami Vartiainen is a photographer specialized in bird photography and based in Helsinki, Finland. His area of photographing covers both Finland and northern Norway. His favourite seasons are midwinter as well as night less nights in midsummer in arctic Lapland.

Aune Kaarina Huhtamella (née Magga, 1931–2013) was highly respected by her family as a maker of Sámi handicraft who clothed both her nine siblings and other relatives from an early age.

The exhibition shows Sámi clothing created by Aune Huhtamella to tell stories about Sámi families, crafting and the meaning of the traditional clothing both in everyday life and during celebrations. The exhibition guides the visitor to the heart of what it means to be Sámi: making Sámi clothes means taking care; it is a pulsating expression of love for one’s family that will carry one through the stormy sea of life. The story is complemented by poems from Aune’s sister’s (Rita Kumpulainen; née Magga) book of poetry Kullankutoja (“The Weaver if Gold”, 2016).

An artist, children´s author and cartoonist Ninka Reittu has written and illustrated five Outdoor Etiquette stories for children. The purpose of the fairy tales is to inspire children into the nature, and at the same time to tell them how to respect the nature and other hikers while moving around in the nature. The fairy tales will also be translated into the Sami languages.

The Outdoor Etiquette helps the hikers to appreciate the nature. The Etiquette is designed to make the life easier, both in everyday life and during the party times. Important basics are respect for nature, moving around, camping, firefighting and litter-free hiking – when You have understood these rules, You are ready to hike in the nature.

“I don’t see all the stars that the map says should be seen now. It’s like there’s a curtain in the sky between me and them. Myrsky said upset.

– It’s true, it’s called light pollution. Saana said knowingly from her hammock.

– Gross. Myrsky huffed. “How do you get rid of it?”

With a fairy tale book Park & Wildlife Finalnd wants to ensure that the future generations are raised for nature-respective hiking and attracts interest and love for nature, which carries up to adulthood.

The exhibition is organised by Northern Lapland Nature Centre Siida.

How has our environment changed in 100 years? We will find out when we place next to each other photographs taken from the same landscape 100 years ago and today. The photograph exhibition shows the landscapes that Erkki Mikkola immortalized a century ago and the same objects that Tapio Tynys photographed over the last few years.

Geographer, geologist and photographer Erkki Mikkola photographed Inari and Utsjoki region and Sompio villages in the 1920s and 1930s. Photographers Tapio Tynys from Ivalo found the pictures in the Finna.fi -digital archive, and he was excited to find and photograph the same sceneries together with Pertti Turunen.

Finding the places that Mikkola photographed has been an adventure and partly detective work. Pairs of pictures tell how human activity and the current warm climate period have changed the landscape.

The exhibition is organised by the Upper Lapland Nature Centre Siida.

The ládjogahpir, a popular and striking Sámi women’s hat in the 18th and 19th centuries; forbidden, forgotten, and disappeared in the 19th and 20th centuries; revived and revitalised in the 21st century.

The exhibition is part of an art and research project Máttaráhku ládjogahpir – A Foremother‘s Hat of Pride (2017-2020). The project is a collaboration between artist Outi Pieski and researcher Eeva-Kristiina Nylander (formerly Harlin). With their project they explore and make manifest the meanings and values of cultural artefacts―such as the ládjogahpir―for Sámi people, individually or personally and socially or collectively.

The exhibition Rematriation of a Ládjogahpir—Return to Máttaráhkká can be visited at the Sámi Museum and Northern Lapland Nature Centre Siida from 6th February 2023 till 24th September 2023.

The kingbird of the old forests, capercaillie, has always had a special place in the heart of Martti Rikkonen, who is a nature photographer from Inari. Capercaillie of the Taiga forests -exhibition takes the visitors to the lands and lek areas of the capercaillie. It shows the largest hen bird in our forests as the target of a nature photographer’s camera as well as of a hunter’s gun.

In Rikkonen’s pictures, Metso is a northern taiga specialist, a survivor, which adapts to harsh and changing conditions. It is also known for its spectacular spring lek.

Rikkonen has had time to accumulate encounters with the capercaillie over many decades, as he has been photographing the species since 1986. The exhibition consists of photographs taken in the northernmost habitats of the species, in the coniferous forests of Inari.

The exhibition is organized by Northern Lapland Nature Centre Siida and it was produced by the Hunting Museum of Finland.

The works of the In My Time, In Your Place exhibition reflect on the relation with place and surroundings, in which the natural environment of the north and the reindeer herding culture have a strong presence. The works are stories on canvas and paper that combine elements of the seen and the heard, experienced and imagined.

The artist, Elina Länsman, was born in Oulu and now lives in Nuorgam as the spouse of a Sámi reindeer herder. The exhibition features paintings and stone lithographs. The work on the exhibition was supported by the Kone Foundation and the Arts Promotion Centre Finland.

The exhibition In my Time, In Your Place can be visited at the Sámi Museum and Northern Lapland Nature Centre Siida from 1 June 2022 till 17 January 2023.

The organiser of the exhibition is Northern Lapland Nature Centre Siida.

Read more about the artist

www.elinalansman.com

Zero Arctic -exhibition deals with a research project that examined how to benefit from traditional knowledge and the ideas of traditional construction in designing climate-friendly buildings. Studying traditional buildings makes it possible to create guidelines for the present and future sustainable construction.

The topic was studied under the Arctic Council in the research project Zero Arctic – Concepts for carbon-neutral Arctic construction based on tradition (2018–2020). The research focused on Northern Finland, Canada and Japan, with an emphasis on co-operation with the indigenous peoples of the regions. The case examples of the project show that it is also possible to build functional homes that warm their users, not the climate, in Arctic conditions.

The Finnish part of the pr oject was realised by the Ministry of the Environment, Aalto University, Livady Architects and the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland with funding from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The exhibition is Maarit Magga’s second artistic production of her doctoral thesis on duodji (Sámi craft), which she is doing for the Faculty of Art and Design at the University of Lapland. Magga works as a doctoral researcher of duodji at the Sámi University of Applied Sciences. 

God’s Children – Duodji Textiles in Space is the second exhibition of Magga’s artistic research on duodji (Sámi craft). It consists of the duodji textiles she has made for Hetta Church in her home region Enontekiö. 

“My textiles are based on duodji, the Sámi view of beauty, harmony and suitability. My works of duodji are characterised by such themes as simplicity – that less is more – and decorative minimalism, both rising from my notion of beauty. I convey a tradition, adapting my skill to new types of works, in the context of a public space”, Magga explains. 

 

I leave room for thoughts. 

I let the plan live, 

mature 

until I see it in my soul. 

I understand, 

make my vision come true. 

Maarit Magga 

 

The exhibition is on display simultaneously with Magga’s previous exhibition “Sámi Ceremonies”. The exhibition is open at the Sámi Museum and Nature Centre Siida in Inari 21.1.2021 – 30.4.2021. The exhibition has been produced by the Sámi Museum Siida. 

 

Further information: 

Customer service, +358 (0)400 898 212, siida@samimuseum.fi