mikroPaliskunta

REINDEER ON THE ROAD

An expedition collects artists to explore nationality of a tourist in Canary Islands 3. - 10.4.2009
The travel can be followed in real-time at renewed website www.mikropaliskunta.net

mikroPaliskunta is a series of interdisciplinary expeditions exploring contemporary imagined nation called Finland and its eco-social changes in a sustainable way. mikroPaliskunta has already made two travels: across Finland from north to south by a biodiesel car with a stuffed reindeer in 2006 and around Berlin by bicycles in Germany in 2007. This spring,there is a new series of expeditions themed ”The Finnish on Holiday”. The first expedition in the hell triangle of tourism is made to Canary Islands - the ever-popular holiday destination and a border shores for African refugees risking their lives to enter European Union. Following two expeditions head to entertain centres in Vantaa and Lapland in Finland

- Finnish culture is moved to warm climate in Canary Islands. How does tourism intensify presented national identity in tourists themselves and in local people? Also, the affects of mass tourism from perspective of economic depression and ecological awareness is an interesting subject matter, explains media artist and member of the expedition Mari Keski-Korsu.

mikroPaliskunta website is renewed for the Canary Islands expedition. As with the earlier expeditions, also this expedition can be tracked almost in real-time. The artists of the expedition work with their own individual themes producing articles, photographs, videos, maps and a series of performances about coffee drinking as a social phenomenon. All the materials about this and the past expeditions are exhibited at the website.

Members of the expedition include media artists Mari Keski-Korsu and Mika Meskanen, photographer Eija Mäkivuoti, author and scriptwriter Taina West. Researcher of sustainable consumption and production Satu Lähteenoja is a special guest of the expedition.

mikroPaliskunta is supported by Arts Council of Finland and Finnish Cultural Fund.

Contact person:
Mari Keski-Korsu
Mobile +358 40 506 5871
E-mail [email protected]
Skype mkk\_kuus

Background info

Paliskuntas are local nodes to manage reindeer herding area. Each paliskunta consists of reindeer herders that herd their reindeers in the paliskunta’s area. Paliskuntas have existed since 1898. There are about 60 paliskuntas in Finland. mikroPaliskunta name’s origins lay in a reindeer as a mythical symbol, production animal and a mascot for tourism in Finland. A stuffed reindeer that has been travelling with mikroPaliskunta collected members to its her from other stuffed reindeers standing still in front of souvenir shops. The reindeer list can be seen in first expedition’s website.

mikroPaliskunta I expedition travelled across Finland from Nuorgam to Hanko by biodiesel car in summer 2006. The stuffed reindeer was a protagonist for the travel. The whole trip was documented with a camera taking images in few minutes intervals and creating an image line with GPS coordinates covering the country. This image line formed an interface to the materials of the expedition. The team produced image, text and video materials with different types of themes. mikroPaliskunta also organised happenings along the way and local artists participated with their own interpretations of the themes. These happening included public discussions, as well.

In summer 2007, mikroPaliskunta team drove around Berlin for 250 kilometres by bicycles exploring the special (historical) relationship in between imaginary nations called Finland and Germany. Unfortunately, the stuffed reindeer couldn’t take part of this expedition due to practical reasons, but this was the first travel to present Little Finnish Reindeer - a travel light reindeer. The expedition was documented in different kinds of web 2.0 services and materials can be found with a tag ’mikropaliskunta’.

People

Guest of Canary Islands 2009 expedition:
Satu Lähteenoja - researcher / www.scp-centre.org
Satu is a researcher and consultant in the field of sustainable consumption. Her expertise lies in the field of household consumption, sustainable lifestyles and indicators of natural resource consumption. She runs research projects, gives lectures and writes articles and blogs. She is interested in creative ways of communicating and educating sustainability issues as well as popularisation of science. Satu holds an MSc in Geography and Urban planning from the University of Helsinki. Currently she works in CSCP, an international sustainable consumption and production research centre located in Wuppertal, Germany.

Mari Keski-Korsu - media artist / www.artsufartsu.net
Mari Keski-Korsu is an artist and organiser. She is interested in storytelling and moments that befall. She explores i.e. nations as imaginary communities, tourism, presented identities and especially causalities of eco-social and structural changes in people’s everyday life. She works with mixed and locative media applying process oriented methods. She is/has been concentrated on i.e. net and video art, streaming happenings and live visual mixing. Her works has been shown around Finland and in several countries. She has a MA in new media (digital authoring) from University of Arts and Design Helsinki and BA in visual arts from Polytech of Western Lapland.

Mika Meskanen Mika Meskanen - media artist and designer / www.medienschmerz.com
Since 1999 Mika Meskanen has been involved in emerging new media art and design practices including virtual reality, field recordings, live cinema & VJing, locative media, interactive installations and spatial media. Mika has MA in new media (digital authoring) from University of Arts and Design Helsinki and BA in media sciences from University of Lapland. He currently works as concept and interaction designer at Fjord Berlin, a leading digital service design agency.

Eija Mäkivuoti Eija Mäkivuoti - photographer / www.eijamakivuoti.net
Over the last years Eija Mäkivuoti has been working mainly with documentary projects and workshops in co-operation with handicapped youth and documenting heavy metal subculture. She works as an project coordinator in Nordic Institute for Contemporary Art. She has also worked as a teacher of photography in Polytech of Western Lapland in Tornio. Eija has participated in many group exhibitions and exhibited solo, as well in Finland and in Sweden. She has a BA in visual arts (photography and multimedia) from Polytech of Western Lapland. She has studied digital photography in Lahti Institute of Design.

Taina West Taina West - writer
Taina West is experienced scriptwriter and journalist who have worked in newspapers, radio and television. She also writes theatre plays and her third book named “Politics and Religion” was recently published. Taina is also known as a scriptwriter for famous weekly political satire Iltalypsy (Evening Dairy) broadcasted in Finnish national television and as a columnist.