Comments on: Rajamailla (Borderlands) (2004)

By: piirainen1

piirainen1 — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 18:37:38 +0000

Minna Rainio and Mark Roberts: Thank you for the “Borderlands” exhibition at the University of Minnesota Nash Gallery. My parents came to the US from Sotkamo, Finland in the year I was born 1953, they spoke only Finnish for many years, so I understand Finnish. Your video work was tremendous in presenting the tones and underlying emotion in the Finnish narrative, but difficult to display in the English subtitles. The borderlands, in the east, Russia, the war, spies and elves were all a part of small conversations I heard while growing up in northern Minnesota Finnish-American communities. The primary reason my wife and I viewed your exhibit was that I will always remember bringing to my father a video copy of Väinö Linna’s 1955 movie “Unknown Soldier”. He invited a Finnish friend over to the house to watch the movie. There is a scene in which the company of soldiers in 1941, I believe, has already crossed the battlefront, and now have come to a long, narrow cleared-out area reaching indefinitely through the forest to right and left. My recollection is one of the soldiers asking the reason for the clearing and the sergeant saying it is the border between Finland and Russia/Soviet Union. My recollection is there was an uneasiness in the movie about proceeding beyond the border, but the sergeant said to move on. At that point, my father and his friend said they could not watch any further because they knew how the story ended and it was too sorrowful to watch. Thank you. Ray

By: Forthcoming exhibitions and screenings « Rainio & Roberts

Forthcoming exhibitions and screenings « Rainio & Roberts — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 21:55:19 +0000

[...] Borderlands will be shown at the Festival “Des Frontieres et des Hommes”, Centre Culturel Jacques Brel, Thionville, France, 4-15th November 2009. [...]

By: Forthcoming exhibitions and screenings « Rainio & Roberts

Forthcoming exhibitions and screenings « Rainio & Roberts — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 21:40:32 +0000

[...] Borderlands will be shown at the Festival “Des Frontieres et des Hommes”, Centre Culturel Jacques Brel, Thionville, France, 4-15th November 2009. Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Work in Progress Exhibition at The Royal College of ArtLooking Forward to LislegaardBrent Ray Fraser’s Blazin Guns 2008 Solo Art ExhibitionLaguna Art Museum hosts WoW art exhibit [...]