100 Hectares of Understanding

100 Hectares of Understanding is my attempt to understand the 100 hectare area of the forest I own. Throughout adulthood my relationship with the forest has been somewhat discordant and attitude towards my future inheritance has been indifferent. Recent explorations in the forest, and in the world of forestry have managed to provoke my interest towards unfamiliar property of mine.

The 100 Hectares of Understanding project includes both tangible and intangible approaches and visualizations of what forest and forestry mean to me and how the unknown becomes familiar. I study what nature has to offer to urbanized people and I will try to create new ways of thinking and ways to experience and feel the forest.

I arbitrarily mix various types of pictures with each other, and define them as part of a larger visual entity. My method of working is based on open-minded experimentalism. For the unknown to become familiar requires both physical and delicate acts: to nurture and to tame, to master and to yield. My photographs are testimonial, traces of my aspirations towards understanding and awareness. Photography, for me, is a gateway to the very core of my thoughts and imagination.

Taking inspiration from Fluxus and the traditions of Arte Povera, I seek to encounter the forest with a playful and open approach. 100 Hectares of Understanding consists of the objects that I’ve found, the acts that I’ve photographed, the sculptures I’ve made and visual secrets that I have created.

Jaakko Kahilaniemi (1989) is a visual artist and photographer living and working in Helsinki, Finland. Kahilaniemi holds an BA in photography from Turku Arts Academy, Finland and he is currently finishing his MA in photography at Aalto University of Arts and Design. His work is now on view at the group exhibition Independence Through the Lenses that runs until 3 December at the Latvian Museum of Photography in Riga.