Lotta Hurnanen, selected for the LIFT residency, intertwines analogue film and gardening

Hurnanen’s practice weaves together visual art, agriculture, and the logic of slow processes. She is fascinated by the physicality and organic nature of analogue film. First, she began working with printmaking, and her interest in moving image began during her undergraduate studies. Since it has evolved into a dedicated focus on analogue filmmaking.

“There’s something very similar about printmaking and film – the processes and working with the chemicals and lots of different stages. You have to think lot of steps ahead and see the changes from negative to positive or positive to negative of different colours,” she explains.

During the LIFT residency, she will delve further into the connections between landscape and materiality through photochemical experimentation. The residency selection committee was impressed by her ambitious approach and her experimental exploration of film chemistry and microbial expression.

A deep connection to the land

Hurnanen’s work conveys a deep connection to the land, both physically and visually.

“I engage with other living beings than humans, as well as places and environments. Then I also work as a gardener, half a year usually. It’s my other profession.”

Her artistic practice engages in more-than-human world: other living beings, places and environments. Not only does she work as a gardener during the summer season, but soil care itself is an integral part of her artistic work. She tends to an old family field, where soil regeneration has become a long-term art project. Through this work, she documents the process over time.

“I have this long-term project that is about soil regeneration in my family’s old field that I am taking care of. I also film the process and document it through film. The result is film material that comes out of it but there are also concrete changes in the landscape and in the soil structure as well as the plants I tend.”

According to Hurnanen, analogue film and gardening are kindred practices. Both requiring time, an awareness of rhythm, and patience.

“There is something similar about these practises [analogue filmmaking and gardening], I would say. You do something and then you wait around and see how it changes and then you maybe do another thing and then you have to wait and let things grow. And sometimes there are phases when you have to work really intensively and then you have to kind of let things just cook by themselves.”

Saastamoinen Foundation residency artists of 2025

In 2025, Uniarts Helsinki alumni Anna Karima Wane, Lotta Hurnanen, and Priss Niinikoski were awarded Saastamoinen Foundation residencies in internationally renowned programmes. Each artist brings a distinct perspective to their practice, spanning community-based art, experimental film, and interdisciplinary research across textiles, sound, and technology. In a three-part interview series, these artists reflect on their journeys, the ideas driving their work, and what they hope to explore during their upcoming residencies.