11.12.2025-8.1.2026

Most human cells (but not all) regenerate in about ten years.

It takes ten months for a toenail to grow, about six months for a fingernail.
Hair grows roughly a centimeter per month,
and a single hair can remain on a (woman’s) head for up to six years.

The outermost layer of the skin regenerates every two to four weeks.
The heart, on the other hand, regenerates roughly every twenty years,
but the eyes, with the exception of their outermost layer,
do not regenerate at all during a person’s lifetime.

Most of our brain cells do not regenerate either during our lives,
as we are born with all the brain cells we will ever have.
Meanwhile, our skeleton is in a constant state of regeneration.

Since 2020, I have collected various parts and samples that shed from my body, such as hair and skin – small remnants of what was once part of me. Even though the body parts carry time and identity, they are only traces of myself. Through them, I examine my own existence and its constant change. I reflect, among other things, on the extent to which I can consider myself to be the same person I was about ten years ago, when most of the building blocks of the human body regenerate every ten years. When is it merely a question of change and when does change become so irreversible and fundamental that it can be seen as a form of destruction and the end of one’s current existence?

Iina Gröhn is a visual artist working with lens-based media, text, and sound. Her particular interest lies in cameraless and alternative printing techniques, which she utilizes to explore the essential qualities of photography: light, time, process, and materiality. In 2023, Gröhn graduated with an MA’s degree in Photography from Aalto University’s School of Arts, Design, and Architecture. Her works have been exhibited at the Finnish Museum of Photography, HAA Gallery, Ostrobothnia Photographic Centre and Kunsthalle Turku, among others.