Samples on filter paper from bodies in sauna ritual; sweat, peat and melted permafrost
Cryospheric Steams Repository consists of samples which are created in numerous healing performances conducted in steam bath, namely sauna. These performances are based on a folk healing method of peat treatment. Here, the peat is infused with water released from thawing permafrost that facilitates an encounter carrying a risk of infection by unknown microbes who have been frozen in permafrost for times immemorial. Furthermore, it is a potential exchange of care. The permafrost is seen as hydrobodily relation in change due to climate crisis and microbial ancestral knowledge making a leap in time. Speculatively, these microbes can be an essential viral for (more-than-) human evolution.
“The core of the sweat rituals consists in recognizing the importance of the gift, which manifests as thanks given to ancestors, the elements, nature itself, and the spirit world.”
Kaarina Kailo, 2019
The water and pieces of peat for the sauna rituals were collected from Storflaket mire in North Sápmi, Sweden – I am thankful to all the mire critters present. Thank you to Abisko Scientific Research Station (Polarforskningssekreteriat), Kone Foundation and Aalto University, Department of Art and Media / RAT for support. Huge thank you to the Changing Perspectives research group!
The work is a part of Mari Keski-Korsu’s artistic doctoral research, which investigates the role of more-than-human rituals and the changes within them during polycrisis. Part of the installation was exhibited in Gifts/Presents/Presence – Meanings and materialities in Cable Factory, Helsinki, Finland and then, in Hanaholmen Swedish-Finnish Culture Centre, Espoo, Finland in exhibition called Walks in the Steam of Cryosphere 13.9.-27.10.2024. This exhibition was supported by Finnish Heritage Agency and Aalto University. Thank you to Hanaholmen curator Aino Kostiainen.
The video was exhibited in Photo North’s More-than-Planet – Earth Gazes Back exhibition in Oulu, Finland 23.9.2024 – 19.1.2025.
Photos: image in the header of the page by Katri Naukkarinen. Other images of the installation by Eija Mäkivuoti.
