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OPEN CALL
01 – 30, MAY 2026

Jaakko Kahilaniemi

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN

Finnland

Natural Alchemy With Cocktail of Love

Without comprehensive understanding, man tries to understand the great and unknown nature. As the son of a forester, as a contemporary artist, I try to find nature’s greatest meaning. I believe that I will never succeed in the task. Through my recent experiences, I have come to understand the meaning of love in the universe. It's global and the meaning of love can also be applied to studying nature and trying to understand it. Everything that nature gives is immeasurably valuable to human.

Recent years I have started hunt with my huntingdog. First time I shot a bird, it was mixed feeling with gratitude and anxiety. I have understood how much nature is exploited when man pursues capital on nature’s terms. My goal is to be able to give something back to nature. I know the idea being impossible.

‘Natural Alchemy With Cocktail of Love’, deals with alchemy, love, the relationship with nature and community and the cycle and purpose of life. The original idea of alchemy has been makiing gold, or to achieve an eternal life. The alchemists thought that they would also expand the sphere of
influence of spiritual light by narrowing the sphere of influence of matter perceived as dark.

I believe that “spiritual light” is a way to understand the universe and human’s connection with nature. I also believe that the idea of eternal life is related to a person’s fear of death and the need to be in control. Facing your trauma is a key to make your life full of joy and light. I think alchemy has a lot of similarities, like love. It is “forever”. As long as a person is on earth, there is also love and there is persons soul living.

Without a loving relationship with nature, human begins to behave selfishly and greedily, realizing the core idea of capitalist society: to be a productive part of the machinery, forgetting the importance of nature and environmental responsibility and focus only on capital.

The work in progress will deal with the subject, which combines the core idea of alchemy with the well-being of nature, with photographs. Human needs nature, but nature does not need human. How can alchemy’s basic idea of “eternal life” be applied to the well-being of nature, community and the environment? How can a person benefit from this idea? How will loving nature be seen in the future?

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