"It's time to wake up" - what mark do we leave on nature?

The artist Reidar Särestöniemi (1925–1981) said in the foreword to the Tokyo exhibition catalog in 1980: "It's really time to wake up and let the great nature live without doing violence to it." In Särestöniemi, a painting called On aika herätä (1979) was displayed in the exhibition, in which a plea for nature can be seen from the eyes of three bear cubs waking up from hibernation. Reidar wanted to protect nature and the places he considered important, because they were part of his living environment and his identity, but he also considered nature valuable in itself. Non-humans also had the right to live and flourish in their own world, in their own habitat.

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In 2020, the Särestöniemi Museum celebrated Reidar Särestöniemi's 95th anniversary with the gallery's main exhibition The last waste - emergency for arctic nature. The exhibition featured works in which the artist took a stand for nature conservation. Reidar Särestöniemi identified himself with nature, he was a red-bearded tough guy, he was a lynx rejoicing in spring or an endangered, exhausted wolf. Särestöniemi stated: "I somehow identify myself with these landscapes, with the arts and people and nature." He studied nature but at the same time looked at himself and looked deep. He wanted to tell what happened to nature in his time: "There are many things about drowning, about nature and changing it with violence. - I try to talk to people about how animals feel when they have to leave the path of the flood basin. I'm talking about what's happening right here, at this time. For this is my time and place.”

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Humans can influence the preservation of nature with their choices. Reidar tried to live so that nature would be saved. He acknowledged that he had had the opportunity to do so because, as a well-to-do artist, he was able to make choices in his life that not everyone has the opportunity to make. On the other hand, everyone can participate and do, even small choices and actions can have consequences that may not always be noticed or seen immediately. The Finnish constitution states that responsibility for nature and its diversity, environment and cultural heritage belongs to everyone. The public authority must strive to secure everyone's right to a healthy environment and the opportunity to influence decision-making regarding the living environment.

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The goal of the "It's time to wake up" project is for schoolchildren to get to know the museum and Reidar Särestöniemi's thoughts on nature and nature conservation. Based on what they have experienced, everyone thinks about what their favorite place is, what they want to protect and their own relationship with nature. Everyone documents the place, which they hope will be preserved for posterity, and writes or tells, for example, the story of the place in a video.

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We also invite everyone else to get to know the museum virtually and the theme and think about what kind of nature, what kind of environment they would like to leave as a legacy for future generations. What memories and experiences are associated with the place, why is it a meaningful place. In his time, Samuli Paulaharju has collected information about important places in the past of Lapland's people, whose texts still appeal to modern readers. Särestöniemi also read Paulaharju and referred to this when talking about his painting called Posoaapa, which depicted the largest swamp area in Finland that remained under the Loka artificial basin. The meaning of nature in itself is important, but the meaning is also deepened by the experience of cultural heritage, which contains layers of time that give us roots. Everyone's own point of view is formed by encountering common intangible cultural heritage. The preservation of these legacies is influenced by people with memory and the will to remember.

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The goal of the project is to awaken people to see what nature and the surrounding environment contains that is worth preserving and cherishing. The idea is also to meet different age groups and transfer oral knowledge from one generation to another. Let's maintain and revive the storytelling tradition. Let's give each other time and be present in time and place. Let's share common experiences.

The environment we live in is often taken for granted. It's hard to see up close. What place, landscape, environment is dear to you, what would you like to preserve in the future. What experiences, memories, feelings or experiences are associated with it? What is the kind of place you always come back to and get strength from.

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The landscape naturally changes over time. The seedling planted now will be a large forest in 100 years. There are also many threats to our environment, especially due to climate change, many places may no longer exist in the future. A person can influence the changes that take place with his actions and decisions.

What happens when a place is destroyed? What happens to people who lose their roots and their stories? What is the meaning of stories about lost, meaningful places of the past?

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Join the project!

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• Virtually visit Särestö: learn about Reidar's world 
   

• work assignment:

  • think about the place, what you want to keep and what you want to remember

  • picture place: one picture or several pictures; you can photograph the place at different times of the day and/or year

  • try to find a picture of the place taken sometime before

  • ask relatives, friends and acquaintances what they think of the place

  • write down feelings, memories, events related to the place

  • for archiving, send the photo by email to info@sarestoniemenmuseo.fi and attach the photographer's/author's information (name), the photographed location, the shooting date and the justification why this location is important and the text: I have read and accept the recording instructions. Put the subject line of the email It's time to wake up.

  • you can post the picture in the On aika wakerätä group on Facebook

• a virtual exhibition is put together from the places.

The celebration seminar related to the theme of nature conservation will be held on August 27.8.2022, On Finland's Nature Day, in Reidar's studio and the event is free to the public. Nature photographers, writers, and theater makers have been invited to the seminar as keynote speakers, related to the nature theme. The detailed program of the event will be announced in spring 2022.

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The project's outputs will be presented to municipal decision-makers and Lapland's MPs, what the children want, what the older generation wants to preserve and what it requires.

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It's time to wake up!

"The mentality that the world will end after me is criminal.
It is a crime against nature and the people who live around it miss many generations of men."

(Reidar Särestöniemi 1975)