27.1.2024 - 10.8.2024

Nastja Säde Rönkkö: Those Who Kept the Light

Those Who Kept the Light is an exhibition by Nastja Säde Rönkkö that focuses on the sea and related myths and stories. The exhibition consists of sculptures and ten videos. it was previously shown in Rønnebæksholm’s expansive Barn and curated in collaboration with Aura Seikkula and Rønnebæksholm.

The artist was writing poetic texts during her travels in Denmark and Norway between 2020 and 2021. She discovered stories and legends about women who took care of the light in the lighthouses. Often they were family members of the actual, male lighthouse keepers: wives, sisters, daughters who performed the task on behalf of the lighthouse keeper. The scripts and stories in which women play a powerful and unusual role feed off each other and are featured in the exhibition in the form of ten videos.

The video works are based on the idea of love or affection that transcends the boundaries set for ways of loving. In the videos, love appears as between people, but also between humans and other species. Wind and sea have awareness, emotions and a voice of their own.

The theme of the exhibition is also related to the climate crisis and the destruction of sensitive ecosystems in the oceans. Love for the sea can be seen as a longing for a space where people have a life-sustaining connection to the environment they live in. The exhibition explores the meaning of vulnerability, desire and memory through myths and open-ended narratives. It brings out the power of longing and imagination that unites people. Through barren northern seascapes, the exhibition progresses to places of comfort, empowerment and emotion.

Nastja Säde Rönkkö

Nastja Säde Rönkkö is a visual artist living in Helsinki. She works with video, performance, installation, participatory art, the internet and texts. Her projects explore the relationship between the digital age and power, humanity and the future of our planet. She is particularly fascinated by how love, slowness or affection can be quietly radical ways of being and acting in the world. Her art deals with social relationships and the basics of humanity, intimacy, empathy and presence: how they are constructed and what they mean. Nastja Säde Rönkkö has been awarded with many international media art awards. In Finland she was awarded the Young Artist of the Year in 2019 and the Below Zero Art Prizes in 2023.

Each work has a length of 5–7 minutes and can be viewed in any order. The spoken language is English and the videos are translated into Finnish.

 

Photo: Those Who Kept the Light: Seaweed -video screenshot, photo by Aake Kivalo and Nastja Säde Rönkkö