6 MONTHS WITHOUT
Residency and new commission, Somerset House, London, UK
Nastja Säde Rönkkö, an interdisciplinary artist from Finland, spent six months without access to the internet to study the effects of offline existence.
Nastja Säde Rönkkö spent six months of her Somerset House Studios residency living and working without the Internet. During Rönkkö's residency everything, from personal to professional communication, navigating a city, socialising and working, happened offline. Far from cutting herself off, she developed new meaningful relationships providing a precious substitute for her lost online existence and reclaiming some power over her own life.
Based in Somerset House Studios, Rönkkö swapped emails for letter writing, likes and comments for a series of seminars, and documented her experience through video, photography and text. 6 Months Without - the culmination of Rönkkö's offline residency - is now showing as part of 24/7: A Wake-up Call for our Non-Stop World, a group exhibition exploring the non-stop rhythms of modern living.
In this interview, Rönkkö discusses the artistic and environmental motivation behind her project, epistolary joy and turning experience into art.
NASTJA SÄDE RÖNKKÖ (b.1985) is an artist working internationally. She creates projects that explore presence, intimacy, love and community across human interactions and social rituals, from the everyday to the profound. Performance, text, video, technology, the Internet and various social interventions are used as an extension or outcome of the projects. Just prior to lockdown, Nastja opened an exhibition of her work For Those Yet to Be at EMMA in Finland, a multichannel piece that demonstrates her commitment to environmental activism in face of the ongoing ecological crisis.
CREDITS
Film courtesy of the artist. Originally commissioned by Somerset House Studios with support from the Finnish Institute in London, Adonyeva Foundation, and Wysing Arts Centre.
Images: Nastja Säde Rönkkö / Magda Fabianczyk.