Eija Mäkivuoti
Joen kanssa / Tillsammans med älven / With the River
A border-crossing watery work-of-art in many parts 2022–2026
I am working by/with the flooding Torne river in HaparandaTornio, at the border of Sweden-Finland in May 2023. Photo by Matti Maikola.
Joen kanssa / Tillsammans med älven / With the River is a work-of-art initiated by the artist Eija Mäkivuoti. In it she studies both through individual artistic work and together with a group of Nordic artists different kinds of border-crossings and being by/with different waters in the Nordic region. The artistic work / art process takes place during 2022–2026 in HaparandaTornio and the Tornio River Valley on both sides of the border, as well as in Helsinki, Tórshavn and other locations in Finland and the Faroe Islands.
The artistic work in Joen kanssa / Tillsammans med älven / With the River unfolds in many parts. In pt 1: Joen kanssa / Tillsammans med älven / With I work individually with themes that entangle women’s work/being by the waters in the Tornio River Valley and on the Faroe Islands. The border river Tornionjoki (Torne river) and the seas around Tórshavn and Syðrugøta entwine in the storytelling/the artistic practice as I am thinking with the river/with the seas. In part 2: Joen kanssa / Tillsammans med älven I worked collaboratively by the Torne river in HaparandaTornio with the Haparanda-based-artist Henri Hiltunen 2022–2023. In part 3: With the River – The Collective Nordic artists from different art fields collaborate to build a multidimensional space for a fluid border-crossing collective artistic work in HaparandaTornio, Tórshavn and Helsinki. The collective works both online, remotely and on-site during 2023–2026. The collective’s work began on-site by the border river Torne that flows between Sweden and Finland and in the Torne River Valley from HaparandaTornio up to the river’s origins Torneträsk (Torne lake) and to Abisko national park in October 2023 (with the support of the Nordic Culture Fund and Tjaldur).
The aim is to create a fluid artistic individual practice and a space for long-term, border-crossing collective artistic work that take shape in multidimensional ways both on location in the Nordic region and throughout virtual spaces. The collective and my individual artistic work are presented and come together in art exhibition(s) / events / get-to-togethers / encounters (e.g. artist talks, workshops, community dinners etc.) on location (2023–26) and in an art book/publication (2026). During the working process we publish micro-stories and documentation on social media / online.
The artistic work draw from feminist new materialist, critical art pedagogical and hydrofeminist thinking. I/We aim for close encounters/meetings, heart-felt collaborations, exchange/entangling of skills/thoughts/practices/knowledges with each other but also with the communities we work in as well as with the partners we work together with (both human and non-human companions).
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My individual artistic work with the different parts of the art process and the work-in-progress has been supported by:
The Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland / Svenska kulturfonden @kulturfonden
Arts Promotion Centre Finland / Taiteen edistämiskeskus @taikegram
Culture Moves Europe Mobility Programme / Funded by the European Union @creative.eu @culturemoveseurope
Society of Swedish Literature in Finland / SLS – Svenska litteratursällskapet i Finland @slsfinland
The Swedish-Finnish Cultural Foundation / Kulturfonden för Sverige och Finland @fondensverigefinland
The Finnish Danish Cultural Foundation / Suomalais-tanskalainen kulttuurirahasto
Letterstedtska föreningen – Finska avdelningen (mobility grant)
Mine and Henri Hiltunen’s collaborative work in With the River, pt. 2 has been supported by:
Tornedalsrådet – Tornionlaakson neuvosto
The collaborative artistic group work with With the River 2023–2024 is supported by:
Nordic Culture Fund / Nordisk kulturfond
