THE FOREST IS YOUNG AND FULL OF LIFE – Jaana Kokko
The Forest Is Young and Full of Life is a film which consists of parallel conversations representing different perspectives. The fictive and factual material weave together to form a whole that sheds light on urban people’s relationship to animals, nature and the built environment.
MEDIA RELEASE
JAANA KOKKO: THE FOREST IS YOUNG AND FULL OF LIFE
June 7 – September 8, 2013 / RAPPU
“The eye sweeps across a forest landscape that seems to be posing. Animals stand between the trees, looking directly at the viewer, as if the entire forest has come out to greet a visitor. A moment later, the viewer realizes they are looking at a diorama, an intricately crafted three-dimensional miniature landscape.”
– Aleksis Salusjärvi
Jaana Kokko’s video film illuminates the relationship between urban humans, animals, nature, and constructed environments. The Forest is Young and Full of Life was filmed in Hanikka, Espoo, and at the Biological Museum in Stockholm. The film’s title is borrowed from the Italian composer Luigi Nono’s opera, whose libretto consists of fragments of political texts.
*”The concept of drama inherently includes the idea of a fourth wall—a wall that doesn’t exist, replaced by an audience. The viewer participates in the illusion constructed before them as a point of identification. In fiction, this illusion serves as a foundation for experiencing truth. Truths are general observations, analyses, analogies, allegories—connections between the fictional reality created ‘as if’ and our everyday world, which we imagine as true reality.
This boundary is destabilized in Jaana Kokko’s video art: the line between fiction and documentary blurs, as does the boundary between the performed and the real. The camera’s role as a viewer and subject becomes emphasized. The camera is a presence; it does not merely record actions but conveys presence. Suddenly, questioning the truthfulness of what is seen becomes irrelevant. The fourth wall collapses along with the stage sets, leaving behind a reality where each individual perceives themselves as both a subject and part of others’ worlds.”*
Our relationship with nature has changed; humans are the sum of their environments. Deforestation is one of the greatest global issues. How, then, should we live this life (in relation to the living)?
Jaana Kokko
The Forest is Young and Full of Life
Video, 2012
Duration: 28 minutes
Blu-ray, stereo
Translated with ChatGPT