Amplifier

Experimental short film and installation, 2017

The experimental film Amplifier is a reflection on the presence and significance of history in our everyday surroundings. The work focuses on Helsinki Olympic Stadium, regarded as one of the most beautiful sports buildings in the world. Completed in 1938, for Olympic Games that never took place, it represents a historical paradigm shift and stands as a modernist landmark for utopia and oblivion. As the stadium closed for public due to major renovations, its abandoned athletic arena, shattered benches and bulldozed foundations provoked a chain of conflicting thoughts.
In the film distant voices resonate inside the decayed, desolate monument, where dance, magic and architecture meet in a symbolic encounter. The contrast between body and stone, the passing of time and the relationship between present and past get convoluted in an immersive, sensory and physical experience.

2017, 17:03, SINGLE CHANNEL 2K VIDEO, FILMED ON 8MM CINE FILM

CREDITS
Director and cinematographer: Saara Ekström, editor: Eero Tammi, sound design: Pietu Korhonen, Heikki Kossi / studio: H5 Film Sound Ltd, choreography and dance: Heikki Vienola, magician: Robert Jägerhorn, costume designer: Erika Turunen, mask: Studio Bertjan Pot, foley artist: Heikki Kossi, camera operators (dance): Saara Ekström, Liisa Lounila, Teemu Lehmusruusu, assistant director (dance): Heikki Innanen.

Production support: AVEK / Tuuli Penttinen-Lampisuo, Alfred Kordelin Foundation

SCREENINGS and EXHIBITIONS – a selection:

2021   Liquid Modernity, Gallery Persons Project, Berlin
2021   Cyland Media Lab, Chronotop festival, Vyborg, Russia
2021   Gallery Laikku, Tampere, Finland
2020   Flight IFF, Genoa, Italy
2020   Love & Anarchy IFF, Sight and Sound: screening with Heikki Kossi, Finland
2019   Videonale, Bonn, Germany
2019   IFF Pacific Meridian, Vladivostok, Russia
2019   Suomalaisen elokuvan festivaali, Finland
2018   Yle Areena and Yle Teema, Finnish television culture broadcasts
2018   XV DocumentaMadrid, Madrid, Spain
2018   AV-arkki, ISFF Oberhausen, Germany
2018   IFF Pacific Meridian, Vladivostok, Russia
2018   22nd International Video Festival, Videomedeja, Novi Sad, Serbia
2018   Pori Film Festival, Finland
2018   Pori Art Museum, Finland
2017   Gallery Hippolyte, Helsinki, Finland