Those Who Kept the Light is a series of videos exploring our dependent relationship with the sea, in a context of queer and feminist maritime narratives. The narratives are told through the context of human and other-than-human love stories; the wind or the ocean are seen as entities with consciousness, emotions and a voice. Those Who Kept the Light investigates the importance of vulnerability, desire and memory through myths and open-ended narratives. Within the wider framework of climate emergency and the role of the fragile ecosystems of the ocean, the project explores the collective mindset of imagination and longing. Unfolding epic and barren Nordic landscapes, the narrator leads the viewer into spaces and places of solace, empowerment and emotion.

Aake Kivalo (Cinematographer), Iris Kärkkäinen (Cinematographer), Timo Kaukolampi (Composer), Heli Kota (Editor), Nastja Säde Rönkkö (Script), Nastja Säde Rönkkö (Actor), Rosaliina Paavilainen (Actor), Janne Masalin (Sound Design)

Bio

Nastja Säde Rönkkö (b. 1985) is an artist living in London and Helsinki. She works with video, performance, installation, participatory art, internet and text. She has exhibited and performed internationally in places such as Somerset House, London, Sydney Opera House, Sydney, SXSW, Austin, TX, Royal Academy of Arts, London, FACT, Foundation for Art and Technology, Liverpool and Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki. Recent solo exhibitions include for those yet to be, EMMA Museum of Modern Art, Espoo, Finland (2020), Altered Breaths, Future Feelings at Tampere Art Museum, Finland and for your charred bones and restless soul, Aboa Vetus, Art Nova, Turku, Finland (2019). She is the 35th recipient of the Young Artist of the Year 2019 title and award.