Performance and a textile installation were the media used to help draw attention to human and sustainability issues relevant to the Kemijoki (Kemi River) and local communities of Finnish Lapland that live in proximity to and harmony with the river. The project explored the use of a place-specific installation on the banks of the Kemi as part of an artivist action entitled ‘Salmon War’, or lohisota. Artist-researchers Satu Miettinen, Taina Kontio, Mari Mäkiranta and Melanie Sarantou implemented this project in support of Professor Vesa Puuronen, who was fined €20,000 for leaving two pictures of salmon as graffiti, along with slogans, on private property owned by the Kemijoki Oy electricity company at Pirttikoski and Seitakorva. Puuronen had used the graffiti to protest against the newly proposed Sierilä power plant, to be built on the banks of the Kemi. The artist-researchers implemented the artivist action to raise awareness of the destruction of the indigenous salmon populations of the Kemi and to lobby for environmental action that could facilitate a return of indigenous fish populations in the river by, for example, providing or constructing bypasses for the salmon. In addition, the group aimed to raise awareness of the unprecedented and radical legal sanctioning of Puuronen for leaving graffiti on private property, as an artivist action. 

Visit the exhibition virtually.

Read more on Documents of Socially Engaged Art book. Miettinen, S., & Sarantou, M. (2021). Five Salmon and Two Fish (viisi lohta ja kaksi kalaa). teoksessa R. Vella, & M. Sarantou Eds,, Documents of Socially Engaged Art (pp. 37-47). International Society for Education Through Art (InSEA).