Ia Ensterä scenographer for theatre and film
Project: Minä en itse veljeksiä koskaan hylkää / I will never abandon the brothers (2017)
Production: Lapinlahden Lähde
Location: Lapinlahden Sairaala, Helsinki
Premise: This work was placed in the tiny historic room of Aleksis Kivi (famed Finnish writer of Seven Brothers) at Lapinlahde Hospital, a hospital once for the mentally ill, now converted into arts and entrepreneur spaces. I concentrated mainly on Kivi's mental escapism and the interconnectedness with the characters from Seven Brothers, a novel finished just prior to his committal to the hospital. This was very near the end of his life, and a turning point in his mental state. It is said he went in a man who loved water and to fish, and came out a man extremely phobic of water (hydrotherapy had been prescribed during his stay). My work is a representation of the drowning Kivi possibly felt, both on the inside and the outside. All seven brothers, made of metal and plastic, were constructed according to writer's descriptions. The sea of crumpled book pages filled the entire floor. The bed was Kivi's and not to be removed from the space. The title of the piece is from Kivi's own words.