YSTÄVYS | Finissage
Line up: Saemundur Thor Helgason & Henna Hyvärinen

Exhibition finissage: Saturday 18 April, until 20.00

Part of the puntWG Open Call Series. 

"Skyr-white calm meets salmiakki-oozy darkness in a grey-yet-refreshing hybrid, inspired by the friendly trolls of the valley."

Northern contrasts collide — regions, languages, and customs often conflated. “Oh you're from Finland? I love Björk!” YSTÄVYS presents a collaborative product video, launching a new chilled delicacy available for tasting on site. While rooted in genuine cultural intersections, YSTÄVYS examines popular notions of national identity by reducing them to a single product. For three Saturdays, the pop-up tasting room serves as a performative advertisement, where the audience becomes both viewer and consumer.

For this occasion the artists have commissioned a new black metal song titled YSTÄVYS composed and performed by Icelandic artist Kolbeinn Hugi. The lyrics stem from the world of Tove Jansson’s Moomin books, rendered in Karelian—a critically endangered language traditionally spoken in the historical region of Karelia, divided today by the Finland–Russia border. Historically marginalized through language and cultural standardization, Finnish Karelians continue to revitalize the language and seek legal recognition of their linguistic and cultural rights.

Credits:

Written and directed by: Henna Hyvärinen / Saemundur Thor Helgason

Cast & production assistance: Lauf Larsen Kristmundsson / Bjarki Þór Sævarson

DOP / editing: Saemundur Thor Helgason

Special effects / editing: Henna Hyvärinen

Moomin book series: Tove Jansson

Original Karelian translations of the Moomin book series: Natalja Sinitskaja

Music: Kolbeinn Hugi

Karelian phonetic coaching: Henna Hyvärinen

Karelian proofreading (lyrics): Natalia Giloeva

Icelandic translation (lyrics): Saemundur Thor Helgason

Typeface: Skrift 107 by Gabriel markan

Special thanks: Ivan Cheng / Susan Kooi / Brianna Letherbury / Salmari B.V.

Supported by: Mondriaan Fonds / Erasmus+

Saemundur Thor Helgason is an Icelandic artist based between Reykjavik and Amsterdam. Helgason works across different mediums of culture, including film, finance, fashion and mass media. Turning the contemporary onto itself, his work aims to influence the public imagination, serving as an active agent in society. In 2025, he established ‘SB foundation’ in Amsterdam providing interest-free loans. In 2022, he completed his artist-in-residence at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam.

Henna Hyvärinen works between Finland and the Netherlands through video, film, music, and curatorial projects. Her video and film work blends autobiography and fiction, reflecting personal experience within social and cultural realities. She was a resident at De Ateliers in Amsterdam (2017–2019) and in 2025 released her first feature-length, firsthand documentary, Next of Kin / Lähin Sugu, on cultural assimilation and the resilience of a critically endangered Karelian language across three generations.