Lotta Petronella with Sami Tallberg & Lau Nau

Lotta Petronella is a filmmaker, artist and curator based on the island of Ruissalo. She is a co-founder of CAA Contemporary Art Archipelago, and she has worked with and on islands for nearly two decades. Following up her internationally awarded film Själö – Island of Souls (2020), she currently leads the Själö Poeisis multidisciplinary collaborative research project on the island of Seili. Alongside her filmmaking practice, Lotta Petronella is a devoted medicine and flower essence maker and tarot scholar.

For Helsinki Biennial 2023, Lotta Petronella collaborated with Sami Tallberg, an award-winning chef, food writer and a foraging pioneer since 2005, and Lau Nau, Laura Naukkarinen, a composer and performer who works with analogue synthesizers, acoustic sounds, human voice, electroacoustic experiments, and field recordings. Together they created a transdisciplinary artwork of healing, song, and ingestion, interacting with the diverse inhabitants of Vallisaari Island through live events and performances.

Lotta Petronella

Materia Medica of Islands

2023

Materia Medica of Islands is a multidisciplinary work by Lotta Petronella

Laments is created together with Lau Nau

Commemorating Ilma Lindgren with Sami Tallberg

Supported by AVEK and TAIKE

Commissioned by HAM/Helsinki Biennial 2023

Working Group

Lamenting Choir:
Alma Rajala, Anna Jussilainen, Gabriela Ariana, Heta Pyhäjärvi, Kristina Vahvaselkä, Laura Naukkarinen, Lotta Petronella

Textile and costume design: Maedhbh McMahon

Lampshades: Limelight Lampshades

SuperCollider sound programming: Atte Häkkinen

Sound recordings: Laura Naukkarinen, Atte Häkkinen, Heta Pyhäjärvi

The work with moths is made with the guidance of butterfly enthusiast Lassi Jalonen (Lepidopterological Society of Finland)

Assistant writer & researcher on moths tarot and oracle cards: Selina Oakes

Metalwork: Peltin Oy

Psyche a 16 mm live performance film screening Produced by Ilona Tolmunen/MADE