PHOTOGRAPHIC GALLERY HIPPOLYTE
Kalevankatu 18 B, 00100 Helsinki, Finland
+358 9 612 33, www.hippolyte.fi
Open: Tue-Fri 12-17, Sat-Sun 12-16

3–26 February 2012
MAIJA SAVOLAINEN
N 45° 54' – N 29° 42'
– Standing Still in Motion

Discussion Wednesday 8 February, 5 p.m. Harri Laakso, Maija Savolainen & Joni Tammi (discussion in Finnish)

One morning I decided that time must stop.

It was the spring equinox, the 20th of March, and the northern hemisphere was just about to turn once again back towards the Sun. It is impossible not to notice the increase in light: the bleakness of winter gives way to the green of spring, the passage of time becomes visible. What would happen if, instead of staying put and observing the change, one would run to escape the light? To travel at a certain speed towards the shorter day, from north to south. The day would then remain the same length, and time would stop.

I set off on 26 March 2011 from the latitude N 45° 54'. After six days, I was 2000 km further south, at N 29° 42'. During that period, the Sun rose and set every day at the same time, repeating the same day again and again. I was standing still in motion.

Travelling with the Sun was unbearable. The constant motion gave rise to a sense of helplessness: every new encounter had to be abandoned almost immediately if I wanted to stay abreast with my goal. Instead of being a safe intermediate state, travelling made me want to stop. Finally, weary of the constant motion, I stopped to stare at the landscape and let the Sun pass me by. I found a respite.

The photographs in the exhibition are stills of accidents recorded on film. They show things I did not see while being blinded by the Sun. At the end of the journey, I noticed that between every exposed frame, my camera had left an unexposed opening the size of a picture, as if to say: the more I tried to reach for the Sun, the less I succeeded. The more I tried to photograph, the more empty film I ended up having. I scanned the sections of the negative between the pictures, trying to find the lost moments that had gone past. However, the endless browsing of pictures on the screen yielded no results, until I stopped once again – I used the camera to stop the never-ending motion of the pictures, at the same time condensing all the lost photographic moments into a new form.

Maija Savolainen (b.1980) is finishing her MA degree at the Aalto University School of Art and Design, with photography as her major. In her works she explores the relationships between photography, time and motion. Savolainen has previously studied biology and graphic design. This is her first solo exhibition.

Thank You: Alfred Kordelin Foundation, National Council for Photographic Art

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For more information and press images, please contact:
Petronella Grönroos, exhibition co-ordinator / Photgraphic Gallery Hippolyte +358 9-612 33 44, firstname.lastname@hippolyte.fi

Maija Savolainen, 12h 24min 7s No. 3, 2011