Kuukausi: elokuu 2014

Miikka Pörsti reports from Ilomantsi:

“I hear it’s louder here now than during the Winter war”, said member of the jury and outsider artist Eero Pulkki as the Bear sculpting championships had just begun in the keskusta of Ilomantsi, 10am this morning. Many of the 32 competitors are using chainsaws. However, some of them, like Beninese competitor Florent Nagoba, scholarship holder for VK and the Union for Rural Education and Culture, work with their handmade custom tools.

Estonian sculptor colleague Raivo inquired if Florent’s instruments had been made the same way as the Sampo. Yes, his tools are an accomplishment of a very skilful blacksmith (taitava seppä in Finnish, kvalifitseeritud sepp in Estonian). But unfortunately, for both Finns and Estonians, the Sampo has been destroyed a very long time ago. As the picture tells, talk of this tragedy devastated both competitors. To not unnecessarily darken the moods of the sculptors, the VK media team left the premises to enjoy a cup of coffee and a delicious vatruska in the nearby coffee shop.

Nevertheless, the competition is now on and our cheering thoughts are with Florent, proud son of Benin, who competes as number 24 until Saturday morning. By then his artistic vision and gifted hands will have turned a large log of scots pine into a bear.

Stay tuned.

ILOMANTSI. Several gunshots have been fired in the forests surrounding Ilomantsi during the last 24 hours and at least seven casualties have been reported. One more soul is destined to leave behind its earthly vessel before ceasefire. Probably by dusk, the blood of one more will have been spilled into the rich soil of North-Karelia – and Ilomantsi’s killing quota filled.

It is the never-ending struggle between man and bear taking place once again, as it does every autumn in Finland. For those worried about the county’s bear population, let us remind you that there are some 200 adult bears plus from 1 to 4 baby bears per bear mother living on Ilomantsi’s grounds (3172km2).

Ilomantsi’s hunting quota of eight bears this year is excellent news for VK and MSL scholarship holder Florent Nagoba who competes under the number 24. Why is that? It’s simply because of the magic of the number three. Aha! Three times eight equals 24. This is a very simple case of natural math practiced daily in VK. Let us now present you some hard evidence behind this calculation.

Three is of course an important divine number in many worldviews. It is present i.e. in the Christian trinity, the Hindu Trimurti and the three layers of the ancient Finnish mythical cosmology.

And there is also the so-called rule of Three in story-telling and writing. This rule implies that three is good and three is nicely unstable and that whenever there’s a three, something is bound to happen. Ceasar’s famous line veni, vidi, vici, The Three Musqueteers by Alexandre Dumas and Goldilocks and the Three Bears are well-known examples of this truth.

All this evidence presented to you is to describe the good story we are all living in today in Ilomantsi (except for the eight bear casualties, of course). Florent is working side by side with colleagues from Finland, Italy, Lithuania, Estonia, Hungary and Russia. There’s lots of laughter and sharing: “Here, try this tool of mine!”, “Hey, could I see some pictures of your work?”, “Sure, thanks, kiitos, grazie, akpe, spasiba!”

In a couple of days, at noon on Saturday, when the competition will end, we will know the ending of the story. Here, we know it’s going to be good, whatever happens.

Today we’ll let Florent concentrate on his work, but before that we’ll to ask him how are things this fine North-Karelian afternoon.

“Ça va!”, he says with a smile.

ILOMANTSI. Lot’s of – excuse me – damn good coffee is being consumed today in this lovely town that reminds many of the TV cult classic Twin Peaks. As the third day of the contest is starting, many sculptors are beginning to feel tired after laborious hours spent carving and long evenings spent Eastern European Style (za vas!). Although the mood of this place is very lynchian, we are not here to solve the murder of Laura Palmer but to witness a true mystery.

There are a few hours left of the competition and we are beginning to see that the logs that the 32 sculptors have been carving for now two and a half days, have never actually been trees. No sir! It is obvious now for all of us present here that the 100-year old pines and spruces have always been bears and that the artists are simply setting them free with their skill and intuition.

This morning it is also the time to celebrate the Father of Evolution’s heritage. As a sign of it our scholarship holder Florent put a Darwin cap hat on and grabbed his new Italian pal’s chainsaw – for the first time in his life. Fulvio Borgogno was happy to teach his Beninese colleague how to use this powerful tool. Florent seems thrilled about this evolution as an artist and has now a few more tricks and techniques in his pocket to bring back home.

As mentioned earlier most of the contestants are using chainsaws and other motorised tools. Florent and Fulvio are the only two to be doing most of the work by hand. In this sense, Florent is a double rare bird, both as the only African fellow in Ilomantsi and as a sculptor working mostly with traditional methods. This makes of Florent and his working site perhaps the most interesting place to visit for tourists and locals that are gathering now in town for the Bear festival starting tonight.

The bear is a mighty animal. We haven’t seen any live ones so far, but local hunter Arto was generous enough to borrow the skin, skull and penis bone of a 200-kilogram beast he shot in 2012 to the Bear festival. “And if someone claims that there is no bone in the bear’s prick, he is darn wrong!”, this fine local gentleman told MSL and VK reporters during this morning’s press conference, swinging the bone in question in the air.

Indeed, the bear is mighty in many ways. The power of the animal also inspired our scholarship holder Florent. “My piece is called A Mighty Rest (Fr. Le repos puissant), as I was inspired by the fact that when winter comes, the bear goes to hibernation under the snow”, he says. “It is this mighty rest that gives him back it’s God-given force.”

Here in Ilomantsi we are still hearing the mighty sound of chainsaws raging into the bear-logs for a couple of hours. This afternoon, at 4pm, silence will fall back from the skies upon this mysterious place.

And tomorrow, 24 hours later, we shall know the name of the first ever world champion of bear sculpting.

Stay tuned.