49 a5 paper book, Finland, 2016
photo by Antti J. Leinonen
In 2016 I worked at KulttuuriKauppila Artist Residency in Northern Finland between October and December. Here I made the project called ‘Trace of Ii’. I put/hanged/hide 49 pieces of blank A5 paper all around the town. Some of the places I choose were inside the river, on the road, on an electric pole, inside a garbage can, on the train tracks, on the library bulletin board, residency floor, supermarket, under the soil… After 2 months I went back to those places to pick up the papers. Some were torn by people, some were wrinkled by the wind and snow, some froze, some were lost, some got really dirty and some stayed nearly the same. At the end I was able to recollect 48 of the papers, at least some parts of them. Sometimes you familiarize with a place by research, understand what it tells you by the traces it leaves behind. In the coming days I will be preparing the book of ‘Trace of Ii’ with all of these papers.
1- Near the river, on the emergency box
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2- Under a rock
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3- On a window (later fell down)
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4- Under an electric pole
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5- On a tree
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6- Inside the river
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7- Electric pole (someone tear it)
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8- Under the bridge
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9- On a tree in the forrest
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10- On a signboard next to the road
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11- On the wooden foot of the bridge
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12- Under an electric pole
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13- On the bridge handrail (someone tear it an threw it down)
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14- Hidden under a cut tree
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15- Inside bushes
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16- On a toilet bulletin board (someone tear it)
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17- Inside a supermarket
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18- Hidden inside the church wall
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19- Behind a sign on the road
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20- Hanging between the trees
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21- On a small road (karkkainen)
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22/23- Floor of the residency entrance
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24- Inside a shower
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25- Under the kitchen hood
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26- Under the dish dryer
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27- On the water heater
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28- Buried under the soil
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29- In the forrest
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30- On a cut tree
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31- On a bridge (lost)
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32- Inside an abandoned house
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33- On the train tracks
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34- On a tree in the forrest
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35- On a fallen tree
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36- Between barbed wires
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37- Under an electric pole (someone tear it)
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38- Inside anchor chains
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39- Inside the library
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40- Hidden inside a broken tree
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41- Tied to a tree
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42- On a empty natural space
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43- At the road side
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44- On a pole near the road
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45- Inside the frozen river
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46- Ground of the shower
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47- Hidden inside the paper recycle bunch
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48- Inside the garbage can
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49- My working place
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