Introduction:
Eeli Aalto in Internet

Cultural Navigator introduces a series of writings inspired by Eeli Aalto and his web pages which are published in English, too. Eeli Aalto is a person whom I have called "interactive"; he is an visual artist, a writer and a TV-film director. He lives in Kempele, a suburban community near city of Oulu in Northern Finland.

As the story goes, Eeli Aalto had a chance to have a show of his paintings in Paris, but he refused and bought a computer instead. However, the results that we can view in Internet are not entirely his own productions. These web pages were constructed in close collaboration with his son Markus Aalto.

The first show is 100 Pictures of Oulu, a painting project of several years. Eeli Aalto took the city of Oulu as his target and we can see and read from these pages his memories, stories and sarcastic comments. Filled with localism, the stories are published in a global context merging into an atmosphere   featured in the neologism glocal.

The next in the order of publishing is A Journey to Vyborg. Eeli Aalto traveled to Vyborg, Russia around the New Years' 1992 Eve soon after the Russian Revolution. These web pages are about homecoming because Eeli Aalto was born and raised in this city, located near the Finnish Eastern border facing Russia. The old city of Vyborg is at the moment The Mecca for nostalgia tours for post-war refugees in Finland. The surrounding area is the former Eastern Province of Finland, Karelia that was lost to the Soviet Union in the last war.

The mythic, Arcadian terrain and the old houses and monuments in the decaying city inspire the atmosphere in this web exhibition. One can sense old man’s astonishment, stumbling in the streets of freezing darkness. Eeli Aalto spits out his mixed feelings slipping in the slushy streets: "Everything was as before, the same and different at the same time!"

Visual material in first two web presentations are paintings and photos, the third one On Holiday in Western Uusimaa is based on drawings. Here Eeli Aalto travels to Uusimaa Province in Southern Finland exploring the old houses in small towns and churches, studying medieval wood sculptures and church interiors with his pencil. These fresh and vivid drawings made on light blue Nepal paper represent the main expression of Eeli Aaltos´ art: strong inner voice and narrative intelligence.

Heikki Kastemaa

Eeli Aalto internetissä
Kaupunkimaisemat arkisankareina
Kotiinpaluu hämärtyvään pakkaseen
Kertova viiva ja nepalinpaperi
Eeli Aallon haastattelu
Introduction in English