slaves
Pentti Aarnio (Helsinki, Finland) &
Iivu Rüüt (Tallinn, Estonia)
1990
3 min 5 sec
U-Matic High Band
PRESS RELEASE, 7 June 1994
A new era dawns in Estonian-Finnish cultural cooperation. The creative energies released by the Estonian fight for freedom meet Finnish technology.
SLAVES was jointly inspired by the justified demands for independence by the Baltic states and the depressed state of Finnish video art. It is a video in four parts: the opening part is a symbolic introduction to the cultural unity of our two nations, the second depicts everyday life in Estonia while longing for liberation from the yoke of the oppressor, the third part presents a conflict, and the fourth offers a resolution.
SLAVES sets out to merge social commentary and visual experimentation with a search for form – three elements crucially lacking in Finnish cultural life that has been undermined by capitalism.
Made in the spirit of the liberation of Estonia, SLAVES consists of scratched found footage of a performance by Test Department that has been passed through a Grass Valley 300 production switcher and processed with a sound-controlled oscillator.
IIVU RÜÜT (b. 1957) is an Estonian refugee who defected from the Soviet army while serving in Afghanistan. After hiding amongst difficult terrain and receiving assistance from guerrillas, he managed to escape to Iran and from there to Canada. He studied in Toronto and actively participates in the local Finnish–Baltic immigrant community. He has also visited London and Helsinki.
PENTTI AARNIO (b. 1956) is a Finnish student from Helsinki. He acquired his video-making skills in a video workshop in the town of Lieksa.
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