Pekka Niskanen (Finland) – Laoufi, in Konnunsuo detention unit, 2015, 10:00
The principal character of the video is Lauofi Nasreddine, an Algerian man. He is trying to meet for the first time his two year daughter who is living in Finland. Daughter’s mother doesn’t not want to aloud the man to see his child. Nasreddine has walked to Finland and ended up locked in Konnunsuo Detention Unit. In the video, he repeats: “I have done a lot to see you.” I listened, recorded and filmed Nasreddine one week. He told again and again about his relationship with the country where his two year-old daughter lives.
Pekka Niskanen (b. 1961)
is a media artist, video- and filmmaker. His dissertation for University of the Arts Helsinki is titled Art in the Construction of Identity Politics (2014). Niskanen has shown his video installations world wide. His important one man shows have been in MUU Gallery (Helsinki 2015), Suomesta Gallery (Berlin 2012), Ateneum Art Museum (Helsinki 2009), White Box Gallery (New York 2004), INOVA (Milwaukee 2001) and Kiasma (Helsinki 1998). He has been working also with a documentary films and video. Virtual War was in premier in Tampere films festival 2012. It has been screened twice on Finnish TV1/YLE.