BORDER SERIES I

ON THE BORDER (2022–2023)

On the Border is a multi-channel sound installation developed between Narva, Kreenholm industrial complex, NART Gallery (Joala 18), and later presentations in Tartu and Porvoo.

The work examines what remains in the human body after geopolitics has passed through it.

It does not argue about borders.
It composes with their traces.

Forty singers, Estonian, Estonian Russian and Finnish, were recorded individually.
Breath, voice and speech are distributed across a spatial sound field.
Fragments of the Finnish and Estonian national anthem appear only briefly, dissolving into texture.

Identity here is not declared.
It becomes audible as proximity.

The Field

The installation unfolds as a field rather than a narrative.

Visitors move between nearly forty speakers.
Individual voices can be approached closely, or experienced as a collective body.

The work does not stage opposition.
It creates a condition in which co-existence becomes perceptible.

Faces

Each singer was recorded separately.

The camera lingers.
A Narvan mother begins in tears.

When the anthem dissolves into breath, something else becomes visible: not nation, but fragility.

This is not documentation of a city.
It is a listening to what passes through people who live on a geopolitical edge.

Movement

A child runs through the industrial hall.

The camera follows.

History does not end in trauma.
It moves.

The border is not only a line of division.
It is also a space where the next gesture becomes possible.

Architecture

At Joala 18 (NART Gallery), the work was installed within a former industrial building facing the Russian border.

Sound reorganizes the body in space.
Clusters of melody disperse into breath and resonance.

The installation does not resolve identity.
It stabilizes attention long enough for layered belonging to become tangible.

Context

The work was developed during a three-month residency at NART in spring 2022 and later presented at Kreenholm, NART Gallery, Kogo Gallery in Tartu, Porvoo Art Factory and World Cities Culture Summit at Helsinki Opera.

Narva is a city where 96 percent of the population speaks Russian.
Local identity is layered: Estonian, Russian, Narvan.

On the Border does not offer reconciliation.
It offers shared duration.

Credits

Sound Artist and Convener: Jaakko Autio
Music Composer: Jussi Mattila (after Fredrik Pacius, 1847)
Light Design: Pasi Pehkonen

Choirs:
Narva Music School Girls Choir
Narva Estonian Language House Tandem Choir
Narva Museum Folk Ensemble “Suprjadki”
Nomad Vocals Choir

Singers include:
Marina Kuvaitseva, Galina Bõstrova, Irina Vorobjova, Maria Izjumova, Tatjana Klimina, Rimma Matvejeva, Olga Sergejeva, Jelena Jurkevitš, Oleg Kašin, Stepan Pidvysotskiy, Vladimir Tšerdakov
Alissa Milovidova, Valentina Starodubtseva, Evelina Koop, Kristel Treinbuk, Sille Reinsalu, Marija Eroshkina
Nomad Vocals members including Eero Lahtinen, Emma Jämsen, Joel Alve, Joona Rytkönen, Juulia Karppi, Kasper Korhonen, Linda Pennström, Matleena Vuori, Sakari Siira, Tatu Huotarinen, Emma Pitkänen, Lasse Kettunen, Tiina Leskinen, Siiri Lautamies, Anna Voutilainen, Jaakko Örmälä, Heta Ikonen, Tiila Vuori, Eevi Kortelainen, Reetta Karhunen, Ville Hämäläinen and Jutta Korhonen.

Producers: Johanna Rannula and Aleksei Ivanov

Supported by SKR, TAIKE and Titanik Gallery.