“Heritage” on view at the Kajaani Art Museum, 2018. Photo provided by Elena Jupperi. 

This is from Lappeenranta museum. The work is at its halfway point, at the moment it takes me from 2 to 3 weeks full-time work to put all the raanus in cube form. Therefore – it’s quite hard work for me and demands also a lot from the museum- for Lappeenranta I opted to show all the raanus in slightly different installation form. I started the cube form and the raanus which I didn’t have time to pile up (5 full working days here!), we showed in the room but still in their rolls. The work is really about collection/archive also, so it was important for me that everything is shown, even though I don’t have time to pile them up. 

“Heritage” at the Lappeenranta Museum, 2022.

I was not sure of the correct translation for the title of Juopperi’s work Perintö. Inheritance? Legacy? Heritage? She responded thoughtfully:

I use Heritage in English. Heritage is the translation I opted [for] and I stand behind. The reason I use Heritage – even though I’m showing objects – is: I am more talking about the immaterial heritage, all the know-how (from growing lambs, to making yarn, to dyeing, up to weaving). In Finland the immaterial heritage has been hugely ignored and abandoned, especially if it was female know-how. The word Perintö can be either immaterial heritage or an object you inherit from someone. In Finland people, with the word Perintö, tend to think about the objects you get after your parents die, instead of the most important: the immaterial know-how – which is our culture. In France the situation is not the same.

Photo: Elina Juopperi.

Juopperi is always trying to find ways to make her work more visible, even for those whom do not visit museums. Before the exhibition at Kajaani Art Museum she needed to clean some raanus purchased at a flea market. Rather than hiding this part of the work, she opted to do it in public. In this photo the newly bought raanus are getting freezer treatment on the fence of the museum visible to passers-by.

Will Heritage reach its full height and become a cube in coming years? Follow along on the “Raanu Raanu” Facebook page, which Juopperi updates when she works on her project. 

August 2022

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