15.1.—8.2.2026

Paula Saraste and Aarni Vaarnamo’s 19-minute video Karuizawa (Happy Birthday John) was filmed in the autumn of 2024 in Japan, in places where John Lennon and Yoko Ono spent time in the 1970s. The soundtrack features a partly AI-generated phone conversation between Paula Saraste and John Lennon. They discuss their secret love affair and arrange a meeting in Karuizawa, shown in documentary footage. The work includes visits to places such as the legendary Mampei Hotel. Relying on landscape-based storytelling, the work combines themes of longing for love and constructed memory.

Paula Saraste (b. 1981) and Aarni Vaarnamo (b. 1989) are visual artists and filmmakers. They both hold a master’s degree in fine arts from Uniarts Helsinki’s Academy of Fine Arts. Their works have been shown at solo and group exhibitions as well as at film festivals and screenings in Finland and abroad, including Filmwerkstatt Münster in Germany and Slow Art Center Nagoya and Aomori Contemporary Art Center in Japan in 2024 and 2025. Karuizawa (Happy Birthday John) is their first co-directed work.

Produced by Elokuvaosuuskunta Paraika and supported by AVEK Audiovisual Centre
Sound design by Jarkko Kela.