photo exhibition>>>
VARIATIONS OF HOME
Maria Kankkunen_Helsinki_FIN
13_09_2011 > 30_09_2011
Hostel Celica_Metelkova_LJU
otvoritev_opening_13sept2011>20_00



Home is where your heart is. What if it is in different places at the same time?

Photo exhibition Variations of Home reflects confusing identities, the urge to cross borders and find answers, and moments when we forget the names of the streets but not the feeling when we walked there last time. But how long can we keep on carrying it with us?

Each photo is named after the address in Helsinki (FIN), Prishtina (KOSOVO) or Ljubljana (SLO) where the photographer was living when shooting the photo. The address is only one dimension in locating us since many of the photos were taken in other locations or in other ways reflecting the complexity between physical location(s) and mind: we can be somewhere and long for somewhere else – not always even knowing where.

The exhibition also tells about the selective use of memory: of what we feel worth remembering and how. The story behind the chosen photos is depended on how it has been decided to be told at one moment. Another day it might be told differently.

“Suddenly people get off the tram
its surface is playing with child's laughter
and the street is a heavy of men's weight when
you say that you no longer have the 5-year-plan of your life
clear in your mind.
This is a sign of adulthood.

In the evening we talk about sleep - walking
I remember the picture of Mary and the child on the wall
close to the ceiling
I remember it like many of the rooms, in which I have fallen asleep
waking up hours or months later
thinking of the streets where I have been wandering
the ones I mix up
like I mix up the currencies
and the languages I mix up.”

Maria Kankkunen (born in 1983, Finland) studied contemporary history at university of Turku, Finland concentrating on national identity theories. She currently works in NGO sector in Helsinki dealing with international youth policy issues. She has lived in several European countries including Hungary, Slovenia and Kosovo either studying or working. She is a passionate photographer, writer and traveller, combining these hobbies when ever possible. In summer 2011 she wrote a blog (http://raiteidenviemaa.com/) of her Interrail - travel in Europe in Finnish co - operating with the National railways of Finland, VR. In her photography and in her writings she is especially fascinated by the changing identities of the places and of the people and use of memory.