salla salin

Visual art for a site-specific outdoor performance / choreographed nature trail
2023

Natural materials, fluorescent paint, mirrors, strings in various colours
Haukanniemi Nature Trail, Jyväskylä

This first edition of a multi-part series of works that combines art and science was based on essays on birds by author Helen Macdonald and the scientific knowledge by ornithologist Mia Rönkä. Introducing an audiovisual walking trail curated for the public on the Haukanniemi Nature Trail in Jyväskylä the piece also included a farewell party featuring movement and music at the end. The overall work explored themes related to migration, decision-making, orientation and departure while the spatial implementation was specifically based on addressing the slowly vanishing light of day and on natural materials found on site treated in different ways. During the performance, a path emerged from the gradually darkening landscape, along which objects began to glow, the sounds of speakers hidden in the forest guided forward, and as one passed by, one could notice a glimpse of one’s own movement.

The second part of the series was In the Soaring Light, which was realized in the spring of 2024 at the Viikki Arboretum in Helsinki, in quite the opposite kind of light conditions.

Concept and direction: Milla Koistinen
Choreography and performance: Elina Häyrynen, Anna Virkkunen, Milla Koistinen 
Visual artist, spatial design: Salla Salin
Sound design, music and performance: Paul Valikoski, Tatu Rönkkö
Ornithologist: Mia Rönkä
Costumes: Kaisu Hölttä
Premiere 27.8.2023
Photographs: Salla Salin