From a message of duality and coexistence, of mutual listening and consideration, attention to the other is consequently stimulated. No longer the other within us, but other individuals and so on.

The observer is invited to dive into personal introspection, based on the realisation of the inner concreteness and outcomes that manifest in the superficial sphere of the being. Understand and connect with what we try in vain to avoid, from which we must try to draw every filament, reflection, motion that we are able to grasp and work with ourselves.

 

Knowing how to interpret and accept ever-evolving mutation through discomfort, turning a situation of personal struggle into active possibility.

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The art film 'The Peaks', through the landscapes of Ostrobothnia and their peculiar conformations, plunges us among surreal and dreamlike scenarios, where one can be absorbed and transported into the non-visible that constitutes us.

The locations of the main work (the video) is Lostenen/Ilveskivi and the surrounding forest in northern Ostrobothnia (FI), The Devil's Nest/Pirunpesä in South Ostrobothnia (FI), and some secondary clips are filmed in the Bus del Buson, in the Belluno Dolomites Park (IT).

The multidisciplinary project involves the expression and research through the production of: video art/performance, crafting, material art, mixed media, drawings, photographs and writing.

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'Diving.

Moving towards the reflected nothingness,

detaching dimly from the distinct surface.

 

I am deeping, following the thread_

_line leading to the gate, over which the will slips.

Motionless, standing upright, now I see it.

 

I see me:

 

seated, intense and umbrous like everything beyond,

waiting, in silent imperturbability.

The peculiar eyes scrutinise me, revealing myself in the cesium billows.

 

... I was expecting.

 

I know what I have to do, this has already happened.

I would not go in there again,

and yet I can't help it,

not any more.

The abysmal complexity calls me back,

 

Self trembles and the truth awaits.

 

Reality,

not filled by a plunge, attempted visits are never enough,

the finite, (here), is not even illusion...

escape does not reside in contemplation;

 

but stripped of constraints

with true attention, promptness of volition,

need to grasp,

we can transform meaning, we can free in us

adding effects.

 

Conjoint unity,

meeting, dissolving on the way,

in the balance on extremes

of still unknown connections.

 

The conscious pallour fades into penumbra

and mingles with the dense darkness;

 

lost reverberations are (re)evoked in the blur,

unexpected paths are (re)found,

dipping into iridescent founts.

 

The apparent whispering emptiness

Touches,

invades,

interpenetrates,

liquefies-

 

-becoming,

dilating,

expanding,

merging,

 

I sense the visceral centrality of us,

the ancestral origin.

 

.. and finally in the mutated renewal,

in aware chaos,

 

I perceive the superhuman, boundless, infinite

relationship with the whole ~'

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Info about 'The Peaks' art film:

Lgth: 9min 47sec
Credits: Direction - Valentina Gelain | Camera operator - Jukka Rajala, Bekim Hasaj | Editing - Valentina Gelain | Sound/Music - Stefan Backas | Assistant - Bekim Hasaj | Professional advice Jukka Rajala
Sponsors: Svensk-Österbottniska Samfundet, Svenska Kulturfonden & Arts Promotion Center Finland-Taike

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Info about 'Speculum-The Peaks' video:

Lgth: 1min 32sec

Credits: Direction - Valentina Gelain | Camera operator - Bekim Hasaj | Editing - Valentina Gelain | Sound/Music - Stefan Backas (the sound of the video is an extrapolation of the original sound of the art film ‘The Peaks’).

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The art film/project is funded by Svenska Kulturfonden, Svensk-Österbottniska Samfundet & Arts Promotion Centre Finland-Taike.

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'A veil of reason over the unconscious'

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On the clear spire

in cowering indifference

in precarious balance

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Avoiding protruding

to the believed doom

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Restrain by dull

eternity

Passive and illusory

conscious state

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Concealment’s omission

bearing your own face

Melting ego

chocked on myself

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Culminating momentum

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Inner consistencies

and dynamics of

overcome

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Implacable pulses

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​Let yourself drawn,

be released

of what holds on the surface

Sink

Drown

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Demons have

our weight

Purge the bias

rewind your supposed ken

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Descent into the abyss

Awakening in the fall

Remains in the bowels

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Rooted

lanes

Primordial

stratum

Ancestral

flecking

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A glimpse of the cosmic womb

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Upside-Down

inconceivable extremities

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Gurgling basal

Legacies in the stomach

Fund reminiscence

 

Retching

of probing

Draining clarity

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Pass through the eyes

black holes

Swallow the eyes

Imbibe the universe

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In the

liminal penumbra

Finally awaken

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Praise of impermanence

Transient consumption

extrication in grains of sand

perpetual dust

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Valentina Gelain, 'The Peaks' 2023 &  'A veil of reason over the unconscious' 2024