National Broadcasting Company Yle in Finland presents Ánnámáret working group´s video art

Three video works from the Ánnámáret working group have been selected for National Finnish Broadcasting company´s New Kino program slot. The works premiered on TV on 4.2.2023 and will be available streamed on Yle Arena afterwards.

Dološ niegut, photo credits Marja Viitahuhta

The video works are titled Dolat, Dološ niegut and Jearrat máttaráhkus and they are directed, written and edited by Marja Viitahuhta. The works were created in conjunction with the process of creating the music for the videos. The music is composed by Ánnámáret (yoik), Turkka Inkilä (electronics) and Ilkka Heinonen (Finnish bowed lyre jouhikko).vThe collaboration is a collaboration between music and the visual world, and between the two dialogues between them. Ánnámáret's yoiku and the content of each yoiku are at the core of the works; the world and the theme it opens up.

Marja Viitahuhta, the director of the videos, explains the creation of the works: ”If I had not been invited, I would not be making these works or touch these subjects. The landscape from which the works spring is the Sámi landscape and environment. The culture in question is the culture of the indigenous people, the Sámi. I feel privileged and happy to have been invited to work in this collaboration. In part also because Sápmi is also mine, a Finnish media artist, growing environment. Our work is therefore of a Sámi-Finnish cross-artistic nature, experimentation, and experimental cooperation, which I have found meaningful and fruitful. However, I feel that the content and form of these works are so strictly to Ánnámáret's work and art, they would not exist without her and his invitation. My own work in this collaboration is characterized by a reciprocity and and listening, and the alternation of independent action and experimentation.”

Anna Näkkäläjärvi-Länsman describes the creation of the works as follows: "In the Nieguid duovdagat project that these three videos belong to, I have been able to make yoiks in a new kind of collaboration, where the music combines yoiking, Finnish bowed lyre jouhikko played by Ilkka Heinonen and electronic music composed by Turkka Inkilä to create new soundscapes. This music interacts with Marja Viitahuhta's video art, the music influencesvisual world and visual expression influences the music. I am glad that I get to work with this team, which combines so many different types of knowledge and skills. This project has allowed my yoik expression to be free and wild, just as yoiks are by nature. In the videos the yoiks get a visual form that in a modern way captures the moods and emotions of my yoik experiences."

Links to the videos:

Dolat : https://areena.yle.fi/1-64205006

Dološ Niegut: https://areena.yle.fi/1-64205104

Jearrat máttaráhkus: https://areena.yle.fi/1-64205107

Many thanks on behalf of the entire working group:

Yleisradio ja Yle Areena

Arts Council in Finland

Alfred Kordelin Foundation

Kone Foundation

The Saami Council

The Saami Parliament in Finland

Vesa ja Marja Länsman

We also thank the families and loved ones for all their support and help with the Nieguid duovdagat project.