Petra Laiti is a Sámi activist who has already tried to influence things in 2016.
The Lux Helsinki light art event organized last month already caused a stir in advance.
The reason was a grievance experienced and brought up by Petra Lait, chairperson of the Finnish Sámi youth. For him, one of Katariina Souri’s works was an old-fashioned and stereotypical description of a Sámi woman and a reindeer. Instead of pre-censorship, the work received a content attention.
Mouse is not treated at all in the new one Nordic cultural scandals series, but the First Steps of Petra Lait’s public activism will be reviewed. They were taken in 2016, when the contemporary art museum Kiasma became the scene of a scandal. Jenni Hiltunen Grindin the video work they twerk scantily in a fake Sámi costume. At that time, two Sámi artists, Outi Pieski and Marja Helander, wrote an opinion piece in which they resented the abuse of the Sami dress. At the same time, Laiti participated in the UN meeting on indigenous peoples in New York. The contradiction was glaring.
– I was simply furious. My whole body was boiling, Laiti recalls on TV.
Petra Laiti has caused a stir. In the new series, two of them are discussed: the events of 2016 and 2018. Over
After returning to Finland, Laiti, among other things, participated in a silent demonstration in Kiasma. Like the others, he put on the Sámi costume inside out as a sign of protest.
– We were more or less thrown out, Laiti says about the reception.
– I still think that the work should have been removed from the exhibition.
That didn’t happen.
Jenni Hiltunen has not given an interview to the creators of the program. However, he has provided them with his statement in written form. In it, Hiltunen says that he was not familiar with the concept of cultural appropriation more than a decade ago. He also says he doesn’t long to go back to that time. But the approach to the work is kinky.
– If a work of art clearly causes damage or negative feelings, as my work Grind did, does it have the right to exist? How could we act ethically as artists without being too afraid of the future effects of the artwork? Removing individual works of art from the exhibition, cleaning them out of public spaces or even finally destroying them in the light of a later reading are too easy solutions in my opinion, Hiltunen writes.
– The ability of a work of art to stimulate discussion is an opportunity that should not be wasted, he reminds.
Jenni Hiltunen did not give the program makers an interview. Jarno Kuusinen, All Over Press
There is a lot between Hiltunen and Souri. The program also discusses the uproar of 2018. At that time, Laiti tweeted to Yle Little Two from the children’s program Mr. Heinämäki, which featured a stereotypical Native American character. The program was shelved.
Nordic cultural scandals today on Teema & Fem at 20:30 & Areena. See all TV programs and broadcast times in Telku’s TV guide.