Performing Landscape in Kilpisjärvi - 3.
posted by annette on 4 April 2014

  This is what the world mostly looked like today, although to human eyes it looked much whiter, brighter, despite the clouds and the snowfall.                       The snowstorm actually started only in the evening, so these images are from my last sessions. The very last image was completely blurred because of the snow melting into water drops on the lens of the camera. It did not look bad, but of course the automatic focus was pumping back and forth, and what was even more annoying, as I recognized afterwards, the framing was completely wrong, or too much to one side. Well, this was my first attempt, and I will try again tomorrow, or probably next week, when the weather is supposed to be clearer. Any way I have now one hour of material of Malla Fell, and sometimes me as well, as a tiny figure on the ice. I should be able to edit something out of it,  a mix of five minutes or so... My real adventure today was going skiing in the morning. I have not stood on a pair of skis for more than thirty years, yes, I am not exaggerating, and I thought it might be interesting to see if my body would remember anything. And yes, it did. With the help of a friendly lady here at the station I managed to attach a pair of forest skis (the wider variety) to my boots and started off across the yard, holding on to the ski poles for my dear life. And after a while it did not feel so bad. My kinesthetic memory was useful in the slope towards the lake, since when the skis started to glide downwards my body immediately remembered how to get up and thus also down by turning sideways. It must have looked hilarious when I was carefully climbing down the small slope. Nevertheless I ended up on the ice safely and really enjoyed moving on skis on a flat surface. And I soon realized that I had too much clothes on, since skiing quickly makes you warm. Although I did not go very far, this short skiing trip was in any case an adventure worth experiencing. Funny enough, while concentrating on moving, you do not notice much of the surroundings. At least when inexperienced, you do not see much of the environment, except the part that is directly in front of your feet, although you are completely embedded in it, literally performing landscape.