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Using white blood cells to attack cancer cells

Text: Antti Kivimäki
Photos: Harri Tarvainen

Nainen valkoisessa takissa nojaa muuriin. Kattoikkunasta loistaa valoa.

Katri Selander, a specialist in cancer medicine.

Over the past ten years, cancer treatment has been revolutionised by so-called immuno-oncology therapies. These drugs boost the activity of white blood cells.

“The drugs take the brakes off white blood cells, allowing them to attack cancerous tissue more vigorously,” says Katri Selander, a specialist in cancer medicine and associate professor of medical cell biology.

The mechanism of immuno-oncology therapies is as follows.

A cancer cell is a cell that has stopped obeying the body’s orders and is growing on its own. It begins to produce proteins on its surface that are foreign to the body. The white blood cells that defend the body should therefore recognise the cancer cells and destroy them.

“However, cancer cells have their own immune defence. They know how to put proteins on their surface that fight white blood cells. Immuno-oncology drugs bind to these proteins and, as a result, white blood cells can attack cancer cells.”

The immuno-oncology drugs that have been in clinical use the longest include ipilimumab, nivolumab, pembrolizumab, atezolizumab and avelumab. These drugs do not help all patients, but for some they are of considerable help.

These drugs were first tried in patients with advanced cancer and no other hope. In some patients, the drugs destroyed the cancer tumour completely.

Today, immuno-oncology drugs are increasingly being offered to cancer patients even in the early stages of treatment when the cancer has not yet spread. They are now being offered for some lung, bowel and breast cancers, melanoma and head and neck cancers.

The downside of treatments

There is, however, one major risk with these drugs.

“When white blood cells attack cancerous tissue more aggressively, they may also attack the body’s own healthy tissues more aggressively.”

The most common side effects of these autoimmune attacks are rash, diarrhoea, thyroid dysfunction, and lung inflammation. The symptoms are often mild, but in the worst cases they can be fatal. Rare and life-threatening complications include intrahepatic bile duct destruction and pituitary destruction.

Patient data have shown that an autoimmune disease in the patient or a relative – such as rheumatoid arthritis or type 1 diabetes – increases the likelihood of immuno-oncology drugs causing white blood cells to attack the patient’s own body.

“The patients may not remember or know if any of their relatives have had autoimmune diseases, so the most sensible way to find out is to do a genetic test.”

It is therefore not advisable to boost white blood cell function in patients in whom white blood cell function can cause problems even without boosting. Immuno-oncology treatments are not offered for these patients.

“However, patients may not know if they have a latent autoimmune disease. They also may not remember or know if any of their relatives have had autoimmune diseases. The most sensible way to find out is to do a genetic test,” says Selander.

“Susceptibility to the side effects of immuno-oncology drugs can also be increased by something that does not manifest as an autoimmune disease but is genetic.”

Gene tests to support treatment solutions

Selander and her team are developing a genetic test that would reveal susceptibility to side effects. This would allow a doctor prescribing cancer treatments to assess whether it is safe to administer immuno-oncology drugs to a cancer patient based on the test alone.

KOlme naista tutkivat näytteitä laboratoriossa valkoiset takit päällään

Katri Selander, Sini Nurmesniemi ja Essi Parviainen are developing a genetic test that would reveal susceptibility to side effects.

Many other research groups in pharmaceutical companies and universities around the world are developing similar tests. There are probably many predisposing genetic variants.

Selander and her group have identified one. The gene is linked to immune function. Selander is unable to disclose the gene in any more detail than this as their research is still ongoing.

A gene discovery in a relatively small number of patients at Oulu University Hospital must first be confirmed in a larger number of patients through collaborations with international researchers. Then the research article will still have to be published.

Research led by Selander is being carried out in many places in Finland. Patient samples are being collected at Selander’s workplace at Oulu University Hospital. There is clinical collaboration and data exchange with the cancer clinics of the University Hospitals of Tampere and Kuopio. Laboratory studies are being carried out at the Department of Biomedicine at the University of Oulu, and mouse experiments are being carried out at the University of Turku, where Selander holds a professorship.

Selander’s research team has transplanted into mice a gene discovered in humans that may predispose them to the side effects of immuno-oncology drugs. The aim is to find out whether the susceptibility gene and immuno-oncology drug treatment alone are enough to trigger a mouse’s immune defence system to attack its own cells or whether other factors, such as a particular diet, are needed. Selander is not yet able to say what these results will be.

Towards individualised cancer treatment

Selander received her PhD from the University of Oulu in 1996, focusing on the mechanism of action of osteoporosis drugs, and planned to do the orientation phase of her medical work at the Pello Health Centre in northern Finland. However, a PhD-related business trip to a conference of bone researchers in Switzerland changed her plans.

“The leisure programme at the conference included skiing. Having grown up on the slopes of Ounasvaara in Rovaniemi, I was excited to teach Texas researchers about the sport, and they in turn invited me to do post-doc research at their home university,” says Selander.

“If I had known who they were, I would not have dared to go and give them advice. They were great gurus in their field. I decided not to work at the health centre in Pello but to become a researcher in Texas instead.”

Selander spent the period from 1996 to 2000 at the University of Texas at San Antonio campus studying the mechanisms by which breast cancer metastasises to the bone, and that is also where she met her future husband. From 2000 to 2017, the couple worked at the University of Alabama, where Selander established her own research group.

“One day, researchers in Finland and elsewhere will hopefully have mapped out all the genetic variants that prevent immuno-oncology treatments.”

Selander had three children and in 2017, when her oldest child was 17, she decided that it was the last sensible time to move to Finland so that all her children could easily access the Finnish school system.

Selander started working as a cancer specialist at Oulu University Hospital in September 2017 and within a couple of months she had this research topic in mind.

“Not all patients experience side effects from immuno-oncology treatments, but some patients have severe symptoms. I thought that the cause must be genetic and that we needed to investigate the matter further,” says Selander.

The end result is clear in her mind: one day, researchers in Finland and elsewhere will hopefully have mapped out all the genetic variants that prevent immuno-oncology treatments.

“Then patients could immediately undergo genetic testing and treatments would only be given to those who have no genetic predisposition to serious harm. If they then develop mild side effects from the drugs, the treatment could still be continued. Immuno-oncology therapies are so good that it is not worth stopping them for minor reasons,” says Selander.

Announcing the second edition of writing course for critics

The Finnish Cultural Foundation will organise a course for critics in the spring of 2024. The aim is to reinforce professional identities and collegial relationships, and to teach new skills that support professional competence. The participants will update their understanding of the significance of art and critique, and familiarise themselves with international discourse around art. 

The course will be held in the premises of the Kirpilä Art Collection, and will comprise eight training days, as well as mentoring and personal feedback sessions. The course content is designed by the online publication Long Play, which is known for its high-quality writing courses, with editor/journalist, author and writing teacher Anu Silfverberg and editor, author and music critic Sonja Saarikoski as the responsible teachers. 

Other teachers on the course will include literary critics Maaria Ylikangas and Vesa Rantama, pop critic Oskari Onninen, film critic Kalle Kinnunen, arts critic Sanna Lipponen, postdoc researcher and music critic Nuppu Koivisto-Kaasik, former Helsingin Sanomat theatre critic and communications expect Suna Vuori, and theatre and dance critic Maria Säkö. Additionally, there will be guest lectures from artists from various fields.

The participants’ final coursework will consist of a series of podcasts dealing with the significance of art criticism. The course will also include a study and work trip to Berlin. The chosen participants will receive a working grant for the coursework.

The 2020 course received extremely positive feedback; some participants even described it as pivotal for their careers.

Anu Silfverberg, Long Play: “When we ran the course for the first time, the best thing for me as a teacher was to notice the great strides that the participants took in their writing, and their careers, during the semester. The strengthening of peer support among professionals was also beautiful to witness: critics are often fairly lonely in their jobs, and it was great to see how infectious encouragement and enthusiasm – however small – can be in the field. Based on last time’s feedback, we will now try to set aside enough time for dialogue.”

Susanna Pettersson, CEO, Finnish Cultural Foundation: “Critics play a central role in cultural discourse, which should be characterised by diversity, a multiplicity of voices, and a variety of channels. Our writing course offers critics a unique opportunity to hone their expression and deepen their professional competence.”

The course is possible thanks to the Cultural Foundation’s donor fund named after art critic E. J. Vehmas, whose designated purpose is to support art critics.

Applications for the course are accepted until 4 pm on 10 October 2023.

Emilia Ukkonen, 2022, Arts Initiative Tokyo, Japan

Looking for spirits in Tokyo

An interview by Athanasía Aarniosuo
Photos provided by the artist

The residency period, originally awarded for 2019, was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, as many others during that time. Travelling, even two years later, was not easy and many changes to original plans were made. Due to Japan’s strict regulations, Emilia thought it safer to travel by plane rather than through land and sea.

The first months of the residency were rather solitary. Not many foreigners had taken the extra step to travel to Japan, and communication with the locals was challenging. Japanese people are generally not so confident in speaking English, Emilia found.

However, the overall experience was positive and fruitful in many ways, and after the first secluded period, more and more foreign artists started to arrive in Tokyo.

The Arts Initiative Tokyo Residency itself is a small, two-storey house that only accommodates one guest artist at a time. However, collaborations with other residency programs and visiting artists are arranged. Emilia was the first in a long time to visit.

A Japanese man with glasses and grey hair in a library

Mr. Hidetoshi Hoshitani

The two-year wait influenced Emilia’s plans in regards to her work as well. While her subject matter and main research focus remained unchanged, a majority of her contacts were no longer useful. During the residency, Emilia wanted to explore the supernatural, and people’s experiences with ghosts and spirits; finding a whole new set of volunteers to interview was a part of the process.

She talked to locals who had seen ghosts in order to learn more about Japanese supernatural beliefs. The residency staff helped arrange a meeting with a clairvoyant, psychic, Mr. Hidetoshi Hoshitani, that a Japanese artist had collaborated with previously. Historically the Japanese have valued their spiritual experiences; however, Emilia found it rather challenging to engage the locals about their personal beliefs.

A dark forest

The forest of Aokihagara.

Emilia visited the forest of Aokihagara, Mount Fuji’s vast ‘Sea of Trees’, which is located a mere two-hour bus ride away from central Tokyo. The Mount Fuji area is a well-known tourist destination and the forest is visited by many because of the well known caves in this area. However, it is also home to ominous events: every year, many Japanese people go to the forest to take their own lives. A popular suicide spot, the stories of ghosts and haunting spirits existed before these more recent tragedies, but have increased with them.

Emilia has been interested in ghosts and the supernatural throughout her life, and has been working on this particular project for a few years already. The project is not limited to Japan, but she has photographed well-known haunted areas around the world, while also interviewing people about their relationship with the supernatural and their personal ghostly encounters. The project has taken her, among other places, to England and Scotland, where the cultural history encourages ghost stories; every village has them! Next, the project will take her to Romania, where stories of the spiritual world are plenty. The photographs she takes are mostly of outdoors spaces, forests particularly; not so much haunted houses or castles.

Emilia is interested not only in the haunted stories themselves, but also the history behind them: how do they get formed and where do people go to experience the supernatural? The photographs and related interviews have not been exhibited publicly yet, but Emilia is in the process of compiling them into a book.

Alongside her main project, Emilia also took a trip to Hiroshima to photograph some old trees as part of another larger body of work, through which she takes portraits, in a way, of trees that have witnessed major world events and personal tragedies. This project is also ongoing.

Emilia’s time in Japan, in the end, did not differ too much from how she usually works: she travels to a place of interest, photographs it, then continues working from her laptop at home. However, it did come with many new ideas and revelations.

Finnish Cultural Foundation’s residency programme is maintained and developed in collaboration with HIAP – Helsinki International Artist Programme.

Tampere Freedom of Speech Event focuses on the importance of media freedom

The topic of the first Tampere Freedom of Speech Event, to be organized in the end of September, is the importance of media freedom and a pluralistic press in the story of independent Ukraine.

The keynote speech will be delivered by journalist Myroslava Gongadze. Ms. Gongadze is a prominent American Ukrainian journalist and media leader, a force behind Ukraine´s best-known journalism prize and a mentor for young Ukrainian journalists. Gongadze is closely linked to the most fateful moments of Ukraine´s media freedom.

Myroslava Gongadze’s husband Georgiy Gongadze (1969–2000) founded one of the first independent Ukrainian news media, Ukrainska Pravda, and his brutal murder outside of Kyiv in 2000 raised an early wave of protests to protect both critical journalism and Ukraine’s young democracy. The murder was marked by a recording scandal which nearly toppled then-president of Ukraine, Leonid Kuchma.

Myroslava Gongadze now works as East Europe Chief of the Voice of America news service. She actively supports her country in the United States and works as a reporter on the field in Ukraine. In September 2023, Myroslava Gongadze will be awarded the Inamori Ethics Prize which ‘honors outstanding international leaders whose actions have greatly improved the condition of humankind’.

In Tampere, the Ukraine topic is covered at an invitees-only conference at the Old City Hall, and in a public discussion seminar in the premises of Tampere University journalist education. As a separate pre-event, a seminar will be held about the situation of repressed journalists and other people in the country of Belarus.

Why the theme of freedom of speech? Freedom of speech is a core value: it belongs to the core of every democratic society and it´s an important part of the daily life of any free human being. Freedom of speech belongs to everyone.

The Tampere Freedom of Speech Event is organized by the Finnish Cultural Foundation’s Pirkanmaa Regional Fund, together with the City of Tampere and its Operation Pirkanmaa, the journalism foundation JOKES, Reporters Without Borders Finland and Lännen Media. The Tampere Freedom of Speech Event takes place in Tampere on September 26–28, 2023. The event is planned as biennial, with varying topics.

Tampere Freedom of Speech Event

Päivi Loponen-Kyrönseppä becomes the director of the Mirjam Helin Competition

Päivi Loponen-Kyrönseppä has started work as Competition Director of the Mirjam Helin International Singing Competition, organised by the Finnish Cultural Foundation. This is a new position at the Finnish Cultural Foundation. Loponen-Kyrönseppä holds a Master of Music degree and specialises in cultural management. She joins the Finnish Cultural Foundation after having worked at the Savoy Theatre, which is renowned for its profile in international programming.

Loponen-Kyrönseppä was the director of the Savoy Theatre since 2013. Prior to that, she worked as the executive director of the Vantaa Orchestra, as the artistic director of the Lemi Music Festival, and as a music journalist for, for example, Helsingin Sanomat and Yleisradio. She also holds a Master’s degree in singing and is one of the founding members of the Opera Skaala company.

“Päivi Loponen-Kyrönseppä’s extensive networks in Finland and internationally, and her diverse experience in the field of music, provide an excellent basis for the development of the singing competition”, says Susanna Pettersson, CEO of the Finnish Cultural Foundation.

The ninth Mirjam Helin International Singing Competition will be held in Helsinki from 3 to 12 June 2024. The competition is targeted at the best of young singers, and it is known for its high standards, demanding repertoire, and prestigious jury. Many of the previous winners of the competition have risen to the very top of the singing world.

Organised by the Finnish Cultural Foundation, the singing competition has been held every five years since 1984. In line with a new policy decision by the board of the Finnish Cultural Foundation, the competition will, in the future, be held every three years. At the same time, separate categories for men and women will be abandoned.

“The Mirjam Helin Competition has an important place in Finnish music life. Holding the competition more frequently allows us to increase its visibility, especially internationally”, says opera singer Soile Isokoski, who will chair the jury of the competition in 2024.

The singing competition is made possible thanks to a major donation made to the Finnish Cultural Foundation by singer, Professor Mirjam Helin (1911–2006) in 1981.

To the Mirjam Helin Competition website

Tommi Parkko, 2022, Filba, Buenos Aires

An interview by Mauri Aarniosuo
Photo provided by the artist

Man with grey hair, blue shirt and glasses.

Poet Tommi Parkko finds that working in residencies suits him well.

I interviewed poet Tommi Parkko, born in 1969, in Finnish, through a remote connection. When he is not working in residencies, Parkko lives in Turku. So far, he has published four poetry collections, in addition to nonfiction books on poetry. Parkko is also an editor in his own publishing house Kustannusliike Parkko that publishes poetry translated into Finnish. He has also taught writing in several educational institutions. But poetry, Parkko emphasizes, comes first. He has worked in several positions related to the culture field for thirty years, but his “big vision” is to promote poetry.

Parkko tells me residencies are a central part of his life and that working in residencies suits him well. He finds it easier to focus on long-term planning and projects especially abroad when social obligations get less in the way. Personally, he generally feels most comfortable working in narrowly structured residencies, but he emphasizes that all different types of residencies are needed. Writers should also have more residency options: for example residencies in New York, or more remote ones, such as the solitary Örö island that Parkko remembers fondly. As a writer, he feels he doesn’t require much: a laptop, some books, a desk, a bed, and food.

Parkko applied to Filba residency in Buenos Aires in 2020, and he was notified of his selection in November 2020. Originally, the accommodation was supposed to be in a culture center, but COVID-19 delayed the residency and altered the plans. Parkko’s romantic plan was also to travel by cargo ship in the manner of Olavi Paavolainen’s travel book Lähtö ja loitsu, but this did not work out either. Finally, the residency took place between August and November 2022, and Parkko was accommodated in an Airbnb flat in Buenos Aires’s Palermo Hollywood area.

Parkko was happy to go to Argentina where he had never been before, to also get acquainted with the local poetry. One of his publishing house’s next year’s publications will be a Finnish translation of Alejanda Pizarnik’s poems. Pizarnik was from Buenos Aires, which is another reason Parkko was interested in the city – to get a sense of the circumstances where the poet came from.

Palermo Hollywood is a part of the Palermo neighborhood with a lot of restaurants and books stores. It is not the richests nor the poorest part of Buenos Aires, Parkko explains. Though, he does not consider his current scenery central to his work. “I do what I do, basically anywhere,” Parkko says. In general, he feels that traveling and limiting his amenities keeps his mind active, but he did not, for example, write poems focusing on Buenos Aires in any obvious way while there. Parkko paid attention to the major inflation in Argentina which made him feel rich during the residency, while being a low-income cultural worker, and also a little bad for “colonizing the country,” as he puts it. “The prize of a pizza is three euros,” he explains.

Filba Foundation, which arranged Parkko’s residency, also organizes Filba International Literature Festival, held in Buenos Aires and Montevideo simultaneously. Parkko compliments the organizers for taking good care of him. He was always able to reach an English speaking contact person for help, and the organizers met him occasionally to ask him whether everything was going well. He feels that cooperation with the Finnish Cultural Foundation also ran smoothly.

There were some minor disturbances to his focused work, however, due to external circumstances. For one, the timing of the residency, which had changed because of the pandemic, was a little off. Parkko’s responsibilities related to the publishing house would have required him to be in Finland at the time, and this caused additional difficulties. Another problem was that the airlines lost his suitcase in which he had his personal belongings and books. As a result, Parkko had only a few things with him in the residency, which also affected his work, as he could not use all of the books that he intended to. He got the suitcase back three months later at the airport.

The cooperation with Filba included participating in the literature festival. Parkko was expected to create a text for the festival, and, at Filba’s suggestion, he went to see a football match for the first time in his life, accompanied by a local writer. Laughing, Parkko tells me that he didn’t even know who was playing and who won. During the match, he talked to the other writer with whom he also performed later at the festival but, even so, he managed to write a few poems about the football event in the end. His participation at the football event was the only structured program that was organized for Parkko during the residency, and this suited him well.

Parkko had several plans for the residency concerning his own poetry collections and other work. He hosted a seminar on creative writing through Zoom and worked on his book about slow traveling in Europe, but this project did not progress as much as he had initially planned. By coincidence, translator Aki Salmela, who is an associate of Parkko, happened to be at the same place at the same time, which was lucky, as they could, thus, easily work together on editing a translation of Jeet Thayil’s poetry in cafes and bars. Parkko also worked on translations of Ingeborg Bachmann, Mark Strand, Elo Viiding, Rami Saari, and Ilya Kaminsky, whose book will be published in Finnish during summer 2023. Parkko also used a lot of time planning his publishing house’s future activities, financing and marketing. A completely new idea was born, too: a plan to publish an anthology of contemporary Argentinian poetry in Finnish, in perhaps five years or so. So far, Argentinian poetry has not been very widely translated into Finnish, and Parkko and his associates wish to diversify the picture of Argentinian poetry in Finland. The translator is already known, and a specific Argentinian journalist will possibly help with selecting the poetry.

During the residency, Parkko also continued working on two of his own poetry collections, one of which is yet in such an early stage that its details are not ready to be shared. The more current collection that goes by the working title Maanpako (exile), on the other hand, is well under way. Parkko tells me that the book is centered around the concept of ostracism. The term comes from Ancient Greece where people’s assemblies had a custom of evicting democratically chosen people from Athens. No proper justification for the eviction was required. Nowadays, the term ‘ostracism’ is extended to social shunning more broadly, and Parkko mentions bullying at school as another example. “What are the consequences when a person is socially isolated?” is a question Parkko wishes to address in his book.

Parkko considers himself first and foremost as a poet. His work has been inspired by historical and mythological references. “I am perhaps not one of the most experimental poets,” he describes himself and sees his poetry as deriving from the tradition of modernism – though, with a more contemporary approach. Parkko emphasizes that he creates collections of works, not really singular poems, and does not even attempt to publish at a quick pace. In the past, he has published collections of poems about once every seven years. He is a slow perfectionist when it comes to his poetry which is not driven by financial interests. He makes a living from his other work.

Yle recently raised the question “Is Finnish poetry dying?” in the Kulttuuricocktail Live program. Parkko finds this discussion amateurish. “After all, poetry is currently both quantitatively and qualitatively more versatile than ever during Finland’s history of literature,” he declares. Parkko is passionate about promoting poetry and has written six nonfiction books on poetry, on writing poetry, and on reading poetry. He notices how especially young readers have been recently drawn into the format of a verse novel where long narratives are told using the medium of poetry; even prosaists have been attracted by the way in which poetry allows the writer to get directly to the point. Contrasting his thoughts to the famous quote by philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, Parkko proclaims that “the poet’s task is to talk about things for which there are no words, to sort of expand the world’s limits.” He emphasizes, though, that while this may sound pompous, it is completely possible and a mundane phenomenon. For example, new words are created constantly. “The world changes through language.”

Finnish Cultural Foundation’s residency programme is maintained and developed in collaboration with HIAP – Helsinki International Artist Programme.

Read more from parkkokustannus.fi
 

Iona Roisin, 2022, Triangle New York

Between times, places, people

An interview by Athanasía Aarniosuo
Photos provided by the artist

AA: You spent several months at Triangle in New York. Had you immersed yourself in New York before or was it a new environment for you? Was it easy to form a relationship with the city?

IR: No, I had never been to America at all! In some ways it was easy to connect, but it took me a long time to settle into a rhythm, after getting so used to the slowness and ease of Helsinki. I had some kind of relationship to the city from afar, like many of us do I suppose, full of fantasies about sauntering around and being super awake to the world around me, which did happen sometimes but I don’t know if that can be a full-time state. It was kind of difficult to match the reality to my expectations, in fantasies you aren’t tired, or shy, or lost, or broke, or uninspired. I definitely felt this pressure to constantly be ‘out there’, both from myself and from the pace of life there in general.

This was my first time also being granted such a residency, so I also felt some pressure to maximise my time because I was afforded this enormous opportunity, and so to do anything other than be super productive would be… disrespectful? Wasteful? That’s a very mercenary way to view time (and artistic practice) and isn’t really my personal belief, but I think the city brought up something in me that’s usually just simmering away in the background, and isn’t so present in Helsinki.

Muistiinpanoja valkoisella paperilla

Rape revenge studio notes.

Sometimes I forget how much creative work alternates between periods of going inwards and then periods of going outwards. This time I found myself hovering between the two, which was a strange space to be in.

So I tried to adjust my expectations based on my capacity, and to rethink what my relationship to the city could be, as well as what a ‘successful’ residency period is. I could have happily spent the whole three months just riding the bus around, letting things come and go, thinking, and being content. But even with the things I found challenging I’m ready to go back!

AA: What did you bring back from New York? Have any ideas, first conceived at Triangle, developed into finished works or exhibitions?

IR: Yes! I had proposed to work on one project about Rape Revenge cinema, but because of covid rescheduling my residency period twice I ended up working on several different things at once.

It was challenging to work on this Rape Revenge project in the context of a residency where there’s a lot contact and meetings etc, I had to introduce the project and the context multiple times, which is normal, but because of the personal nature of the project I felt myself having to detach a bit in order to move in and out of that space. I hadn’t considered that aspect of a project like this at a residency like Triangle, which is perhaps good to know, all my previous residencies were much more solitary. This project is (still) a work in progress, but I got some good insight and support about the ways in which I can develop it further, which has been ticking away in the back of my mind while I’ve been working on other things.

I attended a few poetry classes which were super generative and exciting. I drafted some poems more related to the experience of being in America, or what being there brought up for me, like the swirl of new places and old memories that travelling brings, one of which was published in Propel Magazine recently. It was really nice to have a specific forum to reflect on the experience of being in New York, considering that wasn’t a part of my art projects.

And then I ended up needing to work a great deal on another in-progress video work An Uncountable Number of Threads which was due to be exhibited in Lappeenranta Taidemuseo a month after I returned.

Maisemasilhuetti, jossa taivaanrannassa näkyy tehtaanpiippu.

Still from An Uncountable Number of Threads (2023).

The work is a sort of travel film, or a video work about travel films, that questions itself. It’s made from footage I shot while travelling on group excursions with HIAP’s Connecting Points project, facilitated by Arttu Merimaa and Miina Hujala. In the work I was trying to engage with the ethical restrictions of a travelogue, while working with the material I gathered travelling. It was quite strange to revisit this work in America, tapping into this feeling of being an outsider, and of being small that I felt in both places, countries that are both huge and imperialist, with too many strange echoes to list here. And even though finishing off this piece at Triangle wasn’t what I intended, in the end the location really contributed to my thinking and writing for the project. Hopefully I will show this video in Helsinki soon too. Which leads nicely into your next question!

Maisemasilhuetti, jossa taivaanrannassa näkyy tehtaanpiippu.

Still from An Uncountable Number of Threads (2023).

AA: You have, in your previous work, made travel films and tried to share your connections to places. The results are often very intimate and gentle. Do you feel that the places you are describing are collaborators in your practice?

IR: Thank you! Hmm perhaps I’m more at the other end of the spectrum, a bit suspicious of myself, often I feel more like I’m co-opting a place against its will, I feel nervous and aware of making sure it’s obvious that I’m filtering everything through me rather than trying to ‘be objective’ about a place, or define it. I feel like this lack of neutrality has to be a part of my works, at least at this stage in my practice.

Somehow in writing it feels a bit easier to work with places than in video. Perhaps it’s that writing feels more indirect, or closer to me, or just that there’s not the whole issue of the camera being involved. But I imagine when working with a place that you are from or that you live in for a longer time it feels more collaborative, like working with a friend, or a family member you feel indifferent to, but most of the time for me I feel like a guest.

The way being elsewhere changes time interests me too, I think some of the best poems I have written have been while away somewhere, I guess I enjoy how the newness of a context can interweave with all the baggage you bring with you, and how new things prompt you to regard your own things in a surprising way. Now I’m thinking of places as like a therapist or analyst rather than a collaborator hmm…

But I would be very interested to think more about ‘tourism’ in future projects, and to not try to maintain this distance between a ‘travelling artist’ and a tourist, as we rely so much on the same structures and industries. I began to scratch at this in ‘An Uncountable Number of Threads’ but there’s much more to get into. In my family my parents spent their pre-parent years travelling around together for long periods of time on a shoestring, and it is a big part of their identity, perhaps even one of the biggest parts. I have felt critical of this over the years, but as I age I feel more able to step back and be curious about what that means for them and people like them.

AA: In your work, how do your words and images meet?

IR: Hmm tricky! It’s something I do so unthinkingly, or rather what comes most naturally to me. When I was younger I used to draw primarily, all images and text mixed together. At some point in my arts education this got ironed out of me, but my compulsion to always pair some kind of image with text stayed.

If I sit down to make something specific, usually words (language, phrases, voice, song) come first, images I collect as I travel around or remember to bring my camera out but I would like to become more intentional and consistent with this, and someday have a footage archive that I can pull from often.

Punainen stillkuva videosta, alareunassa tekstiä.

Still from An Uncountable Number of Threads (2023).

In general I don’t find myself to be a very image-oriented person, in how I think or how I imagine, even if my writing depends a lot on images. I have a hard time making an image just for the sake of it, which is sad, and I think when I’m shooting out and about I’m attracted to the feeling of the place mostly. But yeah I really think this is something that my BA in the UK affected, and how arts education there seemed to discourage this urge to make for pleasure or to just follow the thread of an interest. I got this impression that everything needs to have a reason from the very first moment, and that meaning can only come from that. I don’t agree with this and would really like to shed this idea but it takes time. Probably I rely so heavily on words because of this, and I learnt to shape and affect meaning and feeling in writing in a way that never felt so fluent in image.

A rooftop view in New York City.

Writing on the roof and waiting for moonrise in NYC.

Sometimes it feels like a hard thing to reconcile with when I want to make moving image, how to not make the visual an afterthought, or is it ok for the image to be subservient to the other elements?  Anyway they inform each other, in mood, in atmosphere, and I hope that in the things I make now the image and the text help each other to unfold.
 

AA: Some of your past works have a very sensitive, almost quiet way of addressing memory, personal experiences and the need to share them with others. Do you feel that there is a relationship between nostalgia and connecting?

IR: I find nostalgia as a quality or tactic very interesting and often alluring, but I’m also wary, considering the ways we see it weaponised at this moment in time. It’s curious to me how nostalgia relies on its relationship to history, but is not really rooted in the past, and often has such a narrow perspective. Of course personal nostalgia is different from cultural nostalgia but in either case, it needs to be detached from its origin somehow. So the relationship between nostalgia and connection seems to me like a sort of shortcut to feeling.

In the project I worked on with Connecting Points, where we made excursions across Russia and Eastern Finland, nostalgia became something I used as an access point into cultures and countries that I am ignorant of and can never deeply know. Engaging with the nostalgic elements of a culture, e.g. music, style, cartoon characters, movies, kitsch etc. feels possible, because there’s so much one can recognise from one’s own individual world of nostalgia. So in this context nostalgia functioning as a bridge was helpful.

It feels complicated to intentionally use nostalgic elements in my work or to make work about it. I would want to be more self-aware than I am, even if I have a relationship to the subject by virtue of being a person in the world. And in terms of work that draws more from my own life, I think nostalgia is there mainly in relation to my distrust of memory. Even if it’s not a thing to be read like a record, its selectiveness is troubling to me. For so many years when I was working more actively with trauma, and trauma-time, working with memory was unavoidable. These days it seems to be less about purging, and more about unearthing the connective tissue between times, places, people.

ionaroisin.com

The Residency Programme

Finnish Cultural Foundation’s residency programme is maintained and developed in collaboration with HIAP – Helsinki International Artist Programme.

The Cultural Foundation’s Residency Programme Is Expanding

The Cultural Foundation’s residency programme has been operating in its current form since 2017. For the year 2024, residency positions will be offered in nine destinations around the world. One of these is specifically intended for writers and one for performing arts working groups, and the remaining seven destinations are open to artists in visual arts and various other fields, some also for collaborative work. HIAP – Helsinki International Artist Programme works as a partner in the planning of the programme.

Three New Residency Destinations in Europe

For the first time, the residency programme includes a five-month residency at Morpho located in Antwerp, Belgium. At Morpho, both Belgian and international artists receive long-term curatorial and practical support for the development of their artistic work or project.

“The residency at Morpho is an outstanding opportunity for Finnish artists, because its location on the border of two diverse cultural areas, Belgium and the Netherlands, creates connections to both. There is a huge number of diverse contemporary art organizations in the region, which also operate internationally,” describes Laura Boxberg, director of the Finnish Institute Benelux.

Another new destination with emphasis on visual arts, the Sím residency in Reykjavik, Iceland, invests in curatorial support. It is an artist residency run by the Association of Icelandic Visual Artists (SÍM), which annually receives over 200 artists from around the world. The mentoring program created especially for the Cultural Foundation’s grant recipients offers each resident artist individual support from a local curator/mentor.

In addition to these, a new destination for performing arts working groups is opening for application in Tallinn, in cooperation with Kanuti Gildi SAAL. Founded mainly by freelance artists and located in the heart of Tallinn’s old town, Kanuti Gildi SAAL is a contemporary art centre that organizes festivals and residencies. You can apply for the residency with a working group of 2-6 people for a residency period of 2-3 weeks.

“It’s wonderful that the residency program is working again in its full scope after these exceptional years, and we can offer artists new, fascinating residency destinations. About 75 residencies have already been organized through the programme, the impact of which can be seen in many ways in the work of the artists”, delights Special Advisor Johanna Ruohonen.

“The purpose is to continue developing the programme, and, in order to enable the opening of new destinations, we have to let go of some destinations as well. This year ended the collaboration with the Korean SeMA Nanji, one of the first residencies to be offered in the programme,” tells Ruohonen.

Residencies Open for Application for 2024

In the August 2023 application round, the following residencies are open for 2024:

  • AIT, Tokyo, Japan, visual arts / other fields
  • Fabrikken, Copenhagen, Danmark, visual arts / other fields
  • Filba, Buenos Aires, Argentina, literature
  • Kanuti Gildi SAAL, Tallinn, Estonia, performing arts / other fields
  • Morpho, Antwerpen, Belgium, visual arts / other fields
  • NART, Narva, Viro, visual arts / other fields
  • SÍM, Reykjavik, Iceland, visual arts / other fields
  • TOKAS, Tokyo, Japan, visual arts / other fields
  • Triangle, New York, United States, visual arts / other fields

The amount of the working grant for three-month residencies is 7,500 euros/person in total and for five-month residencies (Morpho) 12,500 euros/person. In short-term residencies (Kanuti Gildi SAAL), the amount of the grant is 650 euros/week/person.

The amount of the travel grant depends on the chosen mode of travel. For air travel, the grant is 500 euros for destinations in Europe and 1,000 euros for other destinations. In order to encourage a more climate-friendly way of travelling, destinations accessible by rail and ferry services are given a supplementary travel grant provided the trip is made without flying but through use of public transport. In the case of a residency in Estonia, the travel grant is a maximum of 300 euros, regardless of the mode of travel.

The Finnish Cultural Foundation’s August application period is 10–31 August 2023. The application round closes at 4 pm (EET) on the last application day. See detailed application guidelines here.

Unique heart research

Text: Essi Kähkönen

Heart attack patients receive good care in Finland. They get to the hospital quickly, the blocked coronary artery is opened, and they get the medication they need and thorough follow-up. When they also manage to improve their lifestyle, everything is fine, isn’t it?

Not necessarily. It’s crucial and life-saving to open the coronary artery, but this can also cause problems. Blood clot breakdown medication (lysis) through a catheter, artery dilation, and stent insertion to keep the artery open can all damage the coronary artery.

“In connection with the treatment, a strong inflammatory reaction transmitted by white blood cells starts that further increases the cardiac muscle damages caused by the artery blockage. In the worst case, opening the blockage can lead to heart insufficiency”, explains Professor Seppo Ylä-Herttuala from the University of Eastern Finland.

Gene therapy for heart diseases on the way

Hymyilevä silmälasipäinen mies seisoo käytävällä, taustalla ikkunoista tehty seinä.

Professor Seppo Ylä-Herttuala. Photo: University of Eastern Finland

Ylä-Herttuala’s research group received a grant of €200,000 from the Finnish Cultural Foundation this spring for research on a new kind of gene therapy for heart insufficiency and for ischemia-reperfusion injury caused when opening up blocked coronary arteries.

Six cardiovascular disease research projects received a total of one million euros in grants in the spring of 2023 from various regional funds of the Finnish Cultural Foundation.

Gene therapy of heart diseases also provides new prospects in the prevention and treatment of complications caused by coronary artery disease treatment.

“Coronary artery disease and the heart attacks it causes affect very many patients. About 25,000 Finns get a heart attack each year, and at least as many balloon angioplasties are performed in Finland.”

The problems caused when arteries are unblocked have wide-ranging effects on the lives of patients.

“Especially heart insufficiency is a disease that tends to slowly get worse, and then patients’ quality of life decreases and their prognoses get significantly worse.”

One treatment could be enough

Ylä-Herttuala’s research group is currently developing a gene therapy that could already be applied when opening a blocked coronary artery. At the moment, there are two noteworthy gene candidates. They would be transferred into the coronary artery by means of a modified adenovirus or certain nanoparticles.

“The desired treatment response could already be achieved by a single gene transfer. The gene therapy would clear up the artery wall’s inflammation for up to two weeks – that would be enough to prevent tissue damage.”

“At present, traditional medication can’t achieve similar results.”

The brain also reacts to heart disease

Harmaahiuksinen mies valkoisessa lääkärintakissa. Tausta on valkoinen

Professor Juhani Knuuti. Photo: Suvi Harvisalo / The University

Professor Juhani Knuuti’s research group received the largest grant, €264,500, as part of the one million euros awarded by the Finnish Cultural Foundation.

The KOVERI research project at the University of Turku’s PET Centre is studying the imaging of changes related to coronary artery disease (CAD) in other organs and is producing unique knowledge on this topic.

Knuuti says that this kind of research has not yet been conducted anywhere else.

“Our project is searching for answers to questions such as how coronary artery disease affects the arterial circulation of, for example, the brain, kidneys, liver, and pancreas.”

Coronary artery disease affects the entire body

Knuuti points out that the disease that narrows the coronary arteries doesn’t just damage the heart, but all of the body’s arteries.

“A person suffering from coronary artery disease may have signs of an unnoticed stroke, for example. So blockages of brain arteries can be the consequences of the artery disease that causes chest pain”, he explains.

Until now, medical science has had no easy way of studying how coronary artery disease (CAD) affects other organs.

“What’s completely new in the project is that we’re studying this with a PET/CT scanner that can simultaneously image the entire body. By scanning the entire body, we can detect possible arterial changes in all organs already before symptoms appear.”

Knuuti hopes the KOVERI project will help to improve current treatment of CAD.

“At best, coronary artery disease will be found early enough – before it has time to cause a heart attack or stroke and damages other organs too.”

Finnish translations of literature open up the world – €100,000 for eleven new translations

Nahkatakkinen nainen keltainen huivi kaulassaan nojailee mustaan seinään.

Judith Schalansky. Photo: Andreas Schmidt

In 2022, the Finnish Cultural Foundation established a new kind of grant whose goal is to translate and make available to Finnish readers world literature especially from languages that are nowadays rarely translated into Finnish.

Over the course of ten years, this grant will provide a total of one million euros, which is enough for translating one hundred high-quality contemporary works of prose, poetry, or essays into Finnish.

Money has now been granted for eleven new Finnish translations of books in Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese, Polish, French, Swedish, German, and Estonian.

Future translations will include that of Verzeichnis einiger Verluste (An Inventory of Losses, Finnish: Kadotettujen katalogi) by the German writer and graphic designer Judith Schalansky. The book’s texts combine memories, facts, and fiction; are full of anecdotes and free associations; and touch on topics ranging from painting and seafaring to tigers. Schalansky’s books are a synthesis of the arts in which the graphic design is as essential as the text. The publisher of the book is Poesia.

Camila Sosa Villada is one of Argentina’s best known and most widely translated contemporary writers. The publisher S&S will produce Finnish translations of two of her novels, the award-winning Las Malas and a not yet published work. Sosa Villada’s novels use linguistically skilful fictitious stories to present especially the experiences and lives of trans women and trans communities.

Three unpublished but completed manuscripts by Louis-Ferdinand Céline, one of the last century’s most important French writers, disappeared after World War 2 and the occupation of Paris. They were not discovered until 2021. Thanks to the grant for translation of world literature, one of them, Londres, will be published in Finnish by Siltala. It will provide a new perspective on the work of this controversial classic author.

English is the dominant translated language

Books translated from English dominate the Finnish literature translation market. According to the Fennica database, more than half of the literature translations published in Finland in 2022 were from English and almost one fifth were from Swedish.

The Finnish Cultural Foundation supports the translation of literature into Finnish so that Finns can also read books from less familiar cultures in their mother tongue.

“We’ll have a very limited view of the world if we are influenced only by English-speaking countries. If we want to understand what’s happening in the world in general, it’s important to know how people in other countries live and what they think”, says Juhana Lassila, the Finnish Cultural Foundation’s director of grants and cultural affairs.

Both small and large publishers applied for the world literature translation grants for more than 30 books. Most of these books are in a European language.

“The variety of European languages of these books is wonderful. In the future, we hope to be able to support translations of high-quality books from more remote languages too, including African and Asian languages”, Lassila emphasizes.

The Finnish Cultural Foundation has been inspiring Finns to read for a long time already and has supported the success of books and reading in Finland with several million euros. In recent years, for example, parents have been encouraged to read to young children, school libraries have received a variety of books, and books in simplified language and easy to read books have been made available to 13- to 15-year-olds. The financial support for publishers of Finnish translations of world literature is a continuation of these efforts and enables adults to read interesting books originally written in languages that only few Finns understand.

Books published so far with the help of the translation grants can be found on the webpage www.skr.fi/kirjagalleria (in Finnish).

2023 Translating World Literature Grants for publishers

  • Gummerus Publishers for improving publicity for the work Welkom in het Rijk der zieken by the Dutch author Hanna Bervoets, €6,000
  • The literature and culture association Särö for translating and publishing the novel Anna In w grobowcach świata by the Polish author Olga Tokarczuk, €10,000
  • The Otava Publishing Company for translating and publishing the novel De polyglotta älskarna by the Swedish author Lina Wolff, €9,000
  • The Otava Publishing Company for translating and publishing the novel Naturliga beteenden (Luontainen käytös) by the Swedish author Golnaz Hashemzadeh Bonde, €5,000
  • Siltala Publishing for translating and publishing the novel Londres by the French author Louis-Ferdinand Céline, €15,000
  • The publisher Kosmos for translating and publishing the novel Dschinns (Jinnit) by Fatma Aydemir, €10,000
  • The publisher Kirjasin for translating and publishing poems of the Argentinian poet Alejandra Pizarnik,
  • €6,000
  • The publisher Poesia for translating and publishing the work Verzeichnis einiger Verluste (Kadotettujen katalogi) by the German author Judith Schalansky, €15,000
  • The publisher Enostone for translating and publishing the novel O Diretor by Ana Filomena Amaral, €9,000
  • The publisher Schildts & Söderströms / S&S for translating and publishing the short story collection Väike terav nuga (Pieni terävä veitsi) by Kätlin Kaldmaa, €5,000
  • The publisher Schildts & Söderströms / S&S for translating and publishing two novels by Camila Sosa Villada, €11,000

The Book Gallery