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Jonna Kina

After Life followed by Red Impasto Jar

Film expérimental | 16mm | couleur | 9:0 | Finlande | 2021

The work is composed of two separate films followed by each other. Both films explore transcendental issues through archaeological and illegal excavations of tombs. "After Life" consists of a sequence of meditative short scenes picturing the ruins of a small Faliscan necropolis Cavone di Monte Li Santi in Italy and its surrounding natural elements. The rock-cut chamber tombs of the necropolis had been illegally excavated before they were archaeologically discovered in 2015 – a phenomenon still faced by many rural archaeological sites. At the center of "Red Impasto Jar" is a looted archaeological tomb object. In antiquity, the funeral was a significant ceremony where entombing of the body was just one component in the complex sequence of events. This ancient Faliscan tomb item dating back to the 6th century BCE was passed on to the archaeological museum (Mazzano Romano, Italy). The jar is radically altered and damaged by being cemented into the structures of a house as a decorative element. The film portrays the state of the pottery focusing on the detailed choreography and documentation of the object with a slow 360º rotation on a robust industrial motor against a monochromatic background.

Sound, perception and imagination are essential ingredients in the research and practice of Jonna Kina (b. 1984). Her work reveals the value of fictional viewpoints in non-fictional investigations. Kina’s works have been shown in the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum; Fondazione Pastificio Cerere, Rome; Dunkers Kulturhus, Helsingborg; Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne; International Film Festival Rotterdam; Hasselblad Foundation, Gothenburg; Espoo Modern Art Museum EMMA; Kumu Art Museum, Tallinn and in Sara Hildén Art Museum, Tampere, among others. Kina has recently been awarded the Finnish Art Prize “Below Zero” (2018) and her film Arr. for a Scene was awarded as the “Best Nordic Short Film” at Nordisk Panorama Film Festival in Malmö (2017). She was also shortlisted for the VISIO Young Talent Acquisition Prize in Florence (2017).