Climbing the stairs leading to the Helsingin Taidehalli showrooms, I could already hear the voice of Maija Blåfield. Blafield not only writes, directs, shoots and edits her films, but she also narrates them. Although I was used to her soft and calm tone, guiding the viewer in a patient and inviting way, there was something perplexing about it: I couldn’t decide whether or not she was a reliable narrator. . For example, in his most recent work, Panoramic view2023, does she adopt the role of documentary commentator or does she tell a fairy tale?
Blåfield is particularly interested in the mundane and how, even in the most ordinary circumstances, reality can be deceptive. Often our own eyes lead us astray. In his movie Kulta-aika (Golden Age), 2015, she tells a story in which, while traveling in a war zone, she sees a burnt down house and notices a pair of men’s long underwear that have been hung on one of the balconies to dry off. She takes a photo of the scene and walks home, telling everyone a moving story of bravery and caring amid the devastation, symbolized by the image of the underwear. It was only later, after developing the photograph, that Blåfeld realized that what she had seen was actually a jagged piece of the building itself, hanging from the torn facade.
Misinterpretations and documentary distribution as fantasy (or vice versa) hold Blåfield’s work together. She is not only interested in human perception, but also in the nature of the camera and how it conveys stories. For example, in his film The fantastic, 2020, she interviewed people from North Korea about how Western films smuggled into the country framed their understanding of the outside world. How could they have known if depictions of space travel or cellphones were plausible?
This exhibition,Tarinoita tienpientareelta(Roadside Narratives), followed the twenty-year arc of Blåfield’s career, from his student work to the present day. The large series of 2022 photographs that gave the exhibition its title include a collection of ‘travel diary-like snapshots with small captions written for each image. But, as the exhibition has shown, Blåfield is first and foremost a filmmaker. Of the six moving image works featured in the exhibition, as well that The fantastic, Kulta-aikaAnd Panoramic view-East Tuhoutumisesta ja säilyttämisestä (On Destruction and Preservation), 2017, in which she combines the techniques of documentary film and essayistic narration. Again, she tells us incredible stories, from that of a suitcase lying at the bottom of the ocean to that of an eel living alone for 150 years in a dark well.
In the four-channel installation Panoramic view we see a brown bear on the border between Finland and Russia, an area quiet enough to film, undisturbed by humans. Here, in the middle of nowhere, Blåfield moves his camera over the landscape and then reveals the artificial representation of nature; everything was arranged, designed and rearranged by the filmmaker. Blåfield exemplifies how documentaries can weave the most unlikely things together in compelling ways. For example, in part of Panoramic viewTHE vsamera floats above a snowy forest while the soundtrack is about wandering bears, though during the winter months the beasts would be in hibernation. The audiovisual scenography of the nature documentary is revealed little by little. Blåfield shows how the bear is lured to the wooded scene with dog food when the story calls for it. A few little tricks transform the forest into a fantasy version of itself while Blåfield’s voice guides our gaze and our interpretation. As she says in the film, “I can tell anything, and you’ll see it.”
