Tiina Hallakorpi and Minna Raskinen:There’s No Place Like Home

This community art project draws parallels between the experiences of refugees and evacuees: what is it like to be forced to leave your home and build a new life in a new place?

The departure comes as a surprise, the journey is difficult, you may face discrimination in your new surroundings, and homesickness gnaws at you. But then you settle in.

The project involved interviews with Karelian evacuees and refugees, as well as their descendants. The interviewees also included immigrants who did not arrive here as refugees but are also unable to return home due to war or conflict.

The exhibition showcases the participants’ stories in the form of works combining text and images, created by using a variety of techniques. Some of the participants also contributed to the works by sewing or embroidering. To counterbalance these harrowing stories, the exhibition features familiar and comforting household objects and textiles.

The majority of Finnish people live in apartment buildings. For this reason, the exhibition space resembles the corridor of an apartment building, with access to the various themes of the exhibition via apartment doors. What sort of stories lie hidden behind those doors? The exhibition also includes the work Missä juuresi ovat (‘Where Are Your Roots’), in which the audience can take part.

With the exception of a few existing themes, the music for this audio work was composed specifically for this exhibition. Kanteles, ouds, flutes and percussion instruments weave a multicultural soundscape. The sounds of home and its surroundings complete the work and fuel the listener’s own mental images. The audio work was also produced partially through music workshops.

Concept, design and implementation of the exhibition: visual and community artist Tiina Hallakorpi
Design, composition, recording and editing of the audio work: musician and composer Minna Raskinen

The Kone Foundation has supported the project.