Markku Hakala and Mari Käki: Hiidenkirnu

Hiidenkirnu is a cultural pitfall formed over millennia — a trap we are searching to escape.

Hiidenkirnu is an elegy in a world that is harder and harder to recognize as our own.

Hiidenkirnu is an exhibition in which photographs awaken into motion.

Hiidenkirnu is a series of restrained landscapes of inevitability.

Hiidenkirnu is the repeated act of falling and the attempt to remain upright — being crushed under gravity, a stone boulder hoisted above the head, cling film wrapped tight around the skull.

Hiidenkirnu is a sequence of minute-long moving images — dreamlike flashes of the dualistic dynamics of the mind. Broken figures reenacting the ingrained roles of civilization, searching for an exit, for connection — with one another, with nature, with themselves — clinging to knowledge yet devoid of understanding. Emotions concealed.

Hiidenkirnu is a work born from six years of dialogue and shared labor between Markku Hakala and Mari Käki — an exploration of the expressive space between cinema and photographic art.

Hiidenkirnu is an art film that has received multiple awards at international film and photography festivals.

Hiidenkirnu is an exhibition of photographic prints and moving images derived from this film.

Hiidenkirnu is a cultural pitfall formed over millennia — a trap we are still searching to escape.

About the Process

Hiidenkirnu began with a script that seemed to write itself, and uncompromising faithfulness to the images that were thus revealed. Our task was to simply to stay out of the way, to allow that something to emerge which was looking to see the light of the day.

Although our initial intention was to create a film, the practical process from the very beginning paid resemblance to studio art photography or digital painting more than traditional film production.

Each image was given a month of pre-production: researching and constructing locations or studio environments, building sets, sourcing props, shaping light. The actual shooting lasted only one or two days per scene. Nearly every image then went through an intricate digital process, which combined material captured from multiple sources into layered visual compositions.

About the Artists

Mari Käki (M.A., b. 1973) works as a professional supervisor and educator, and has background in literature and gender studies. For Mari, dialogue is life — and life is dialogue.

Markku Hakala (M.A., b. 1975) has made the leap to art from tech industry and computer science research. For him, art and philosophy represent the only possible personal modes of being.

Open

Tue–Fri 9 a.m. – 8 p.m.

Sat–Sun 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.

Free admission!

The Culture House Laikku is largely accessible. Read more about Laikku's accessibility.

The event will follow Safer Space Guidelines.

For more information about exhibitions at Culture House Laikku:

Irma Puttonen

Senior Coordinator

irma.puttonen@tampere.fi

050 553 8673