14.10. — 6.11.2022

Elina Oikari – Synnyin

The film installation Synnyin examines a human being’s existence, paradoxical relationship with nature and the seasons shaped by climate change. The main figure of the work yearns for nature, but is continuously surrounded by the artificial.

The basis of the intallation lies in the central idea of existential nihilism, according to which ”each individual [i]s an isolated being “thrown” into … [the] universe, barred forever from knowing why yet required to invent meaning” (Alan Pratt: Nihilism, 2001). Referencing these themes Synnyin presents visual considerations of the meaning and meaninglessness of existence in the context of urban natural environments in the 2020s.

Synnyin examines how the environment influences us and our condition. The work has just a touch of the absurd to it as it examines what experiences with nature will be like in the future, and how they are experienced currently: contrasting forest landscapes in gas station toilet stalls, gardening boxes amongst concrete as well as machine-made snow covering ski trails alongside open golf courses. 

My goal as a filmmaker is to create a work of ”haptic visuality” as in other than vision and hearing based experience. The purpose when shooting the film was, together with the cinematographer Pietari Peltola, to find the angles in which the spectator is nearly able to smell, taste, and feel in their fingertips that they are there at the place of the shot.

The sound design and music is created by Jyri Pirinen. His sound plan is a meeting point for musical-spatial differences.

Elina Oikari is a Helsinki-based filmmaker who works with fictional, documentary and alternative film as well as photography. She graduated in 2014 with a Master’s degree in Arts from the Aalto University, majoring in Documentary Film Directing. Oikari’s work focuses on challenging stories by using reflective visual narrative and unconventional sound design.

The exhibition and the making of the work are supported by:
The Central Fund of the Finnish Cultural Foundation, AVEK – Center for the Promotion of Audiovisual Culture, the Finnish Film Foundation, and the Arts Promotion Centre Finland

Film installation working group:
Director, screenwriter, editor: Elina Oikari
Producer: Hannu-Pekka Vitikainen, Zone2 Pictures
Cinematographer: Pietari Peltola
Sound designer and composer: Jyri Pirinen
Dramaturg: Mikko Myllylahti
Assistant director and set designer: Moona Pennanen
Recorders: Jyri Pirinen, Hannu-Pekka Vitikainen, Támara Aalto
Animation: Gabriel de la Cruz
Cast: Yassine Khaled, Raine Siiriä, Petra Lakhdar