Exciting times! I was fortunate to be able to participate in the Identity Search Project.
This is a project that's very dear to my heart, about immigrants living in Finland, and more broadly, about immigration and identity in general. What is identity? How do we define ourselves? What does being a "foreigner" mean? Where do I belong?
It's a touring photo exhibition that opened this last Tuesday at the VIRKA galleria at the City Hall in Helsinki. I couldn't attend the exhibition opening (for obvious reasons), but it's still there until May 30th. So, to all locals: go, go! I know I will! (Maybe we'll go together...?) :)
You can read my contribution by going to the Identity Search website, and then clicking on "Isabell." The text is in Finnish, English, and Swedish.
There is also a book to go along with the exhibition. It's called Identity Search: Stories About Identity and Immigration (and yep, my little article is in it... coooool!). You can buy the book here. ;)
The very talented Johannes Romppanen, documentary photographer extraordinaire, took the picture of me. (I'm flattered).
... VIRKA galleria exhibition page ...
... Identity Search Project Website ...
... Identity Search Project Book ....
... Johannes Romppanen Photography ...
A big thanks to Johannes for allowing me to use this picture on my blog! And to Sirkku, for letting me be part of this project! :)
14 comments:
oh how exiting!!! these are themes which interest me too (for obvious reasons;)
i'm off to check the links!
ps: great foto of you!
ps: back from the "identity search website", beautifully written, your text isabel, i got tears in my eyes, don't know why, it touched me..
(darf ich dir eine mail schreiben? ich möchte ein paar sätze nicht-öffentlich sagen; meine mailadresse ist auf meinem blog, mail mir bitte kurz, dann kann ich dir zurückschreiben, danke!)
Thanks for saying what I would have said if I could have put it in words like that. Geeze, that's what you should have posted as a comment on my blog in regards to the immigration debate. :) Really, I think a lot of people just don't realize what kind of journey you really embark on when you pack up and leave 'home'. Probably not even us. Loved the article! Well done Isa!
I loved reading your story Isa. Not only because I've learnt something more about you, but also because of all the people I know that had left to live in another country, only from you I know what it really feels like. They always play cool, saying how glad they are they had left, that Slovakia is really just one small hole full of small people, blahblah..when mostly what they really felt was fear, loneliness and disorientation. I'm glad you haven't become as bitter as them...your ending "home in myself" says it all...x
p.s. That photo is amazing!!! You look so beautiful.
I loved reading your story, it touched me too. And you look as pretty as always in that pic.
And I guess I prefer to speak Finnish instead of English for the same reasons, you don't speak Finnish :)
wow isa, thanks for sharing, at first when I glanced at the post I thought something like: what a glam photo, I knew she was one of these stylish women who get away with wearing a belt with a coat (something that never works with me) but then I started following the link and reading, what a beautiful way of describing that feeling of not belonging where you were born or "wherever you happen to live at that moment in time". thanks for sharing with us!
Hi Isa,
so now the veil's been lifted, and I could satisfy my ever curious nature. I have been wondering from the moment I spotted your blog who you are, why do you write in English while living in Finland and then receive comments in German!!! Yet the feeling of "other" seemed to linger in the air from the start and I guess this is what drew me towards your stories. Now that I read your profile in the identity collection, I had the illumination! Reading your lines (which were so beautifully and craftfully written) I knew EXACTLY what you were saying!!! Gosh, you put the right words to these fluid feelings and state-of-minds! I fell in love with the beautiful thought about childhood wrapped up in a fancy paper.
Wonderful! You really made my day. And I will definitely continue reading your blog always on the look out for these I-know-what-you-mean moments ;-)
An Estonian mother in the Swiss Alps...
Hi Isa, Nina war so lieb und hat mir deine Geschichte übersetzt. Ich denke das alle die mal Ausgewandert sind mit dem gleichen Problem kämpfen. Ich finde aber die Idee des finnischen Künstlers toll, auch mal diese Themen anzusprechen und auf die einzelnen Probleme der Immigranten aufmerksam zu machen. Das Bild ist übrigens sehr hübsch, du schaust nur ein wenig bedrückt.
LG
Hei, löysin tänne SIRTSun blogin kautta, kummallista, pitää kiertä maita ja mantuja löytääkseen lähelle. Ihan kuin pitää kiertä maailma löytääkseen tien itseensä.
Onnittelut pikku-tytöstä, on aivan älyttömän suloinen :)
I love all the birth pictures in the hospital. So precious..
And the yellow shoes in the post before, and this picture here are wonderful! I love how your jacket matches the houses on the back ground. :)
Thanks for this post, I just read the stories, admired you pictute -of couse- and felt familiar feelings.
I got married with a foreign man and I followd him to the ends of the Earth. It has been an amazing adventure, made me mature faster than I did in my home country, but it has made me to struggle as well. I don't know where do I belong, I don't feel myself home anywhere. And after living for some years in a new country, I start to feel the familiar restlesness again, like fire in my soul; desire to fly, to feel the wind on my face and live to the fully...in some other place.
I love your blog! :)
Thank you for the identity stuff you posted here. It's interesting to me and also to my husband.
Wow, what a fantastic project. I loved reading your piece- you are such a good writer!
thank you everybody for these supportive comments! :)
Anonymous, I know what you mean by "the familiar restlessness". YES! I start feeling it after a year of living in the same place... and I just want to move on.. to new things.. and new places... Will I ever settle down??? I doubt it.
But (I think) it's kind of a good thing! ;)
Ieva, I also dream of living in many countries. Japan is on my list right now. As is Eastern Europe. Czech Republic, Slovakia... I'm dying to at least go visit!
Irene und Nina, ich finde mein Leben kein bisschen traurig. Im Gegenteil, ich empfinde das stetige Treiben als eine Staerke. Wie ich im Artikel schreibe habe ich mir im Endeffekt mein Zuhause in mir selbst gemacht. Es ist also nicht von aeusseren Umstaenden abhaenging, und das ist gut und schoen so. :)
Post a Comment