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Exhibition Research Lab is pleased to present an interactive lecture/performance by Lotta Petronella.

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Lotta Petronella is a filmmaker, artist and curator based on the island of Ruissalo, Finland. She is cofounder of CAA Contemporary Art Archipelago and has worked with and on islands for nearly two decades. Since her internationally awarded film Själö – Island of Souls (2020), she has been leading a multidisciplinary collaborative research project – Själö Poeisis –  on the island of Seili. She will premier new work at Helsinki Biennial 2023. In addition to her filmmaking practice, Petronella is a devoted medicine and flower essence maker and tarot scholar. She also writes poems, makes soundscapes and runs a podcast called little screams.

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Petronella will present a lecture/performance of her seven-year research project and work on the island of Seili, Finland. Seili is a small island in the Archipelago Sea with a 400-year history of incarceration and institutions. The island has hosted a leprosy colony, a mental hospital and a biological research centre collecting data to measure climate change. Petronella’s work with the island encompasses a feature film Själö – Island of Souls (2020), a radio essay Själö – a mental place and space (2020), and a multidisciplinary collaborative artwork Själö Poeisis; an apothecary, an artist book, a choir work, a tarot herbarium, botanical lessons and sleepings with plants.

Petronella will perform texts, soundscapes, do a collective reading with the tarot herbarium, and lead an ingesting ritual to evoke the haunting and enchanting spirit of the island.

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