Niina Pietarinen: Sydänmaantie 641

18.12.2025-18.1.2026

I felt deep melancholy when I came to the empty house for the first time. It happened to be St. Stephen's Day, and I was used to spending my Christmas here. The objects were in the places where they had been left in early November. It was dark. The porch light was on so the house wouldn't look deserted. It felt sad, even though it had been expected that grandma wouldn't manage on her own at home much longer.

The house was built in 1980. The surroundings of the house are rocky and stony, with fields opening to the south and north, where my uncle's horses graze in the summer. There is a large juniper, lilacs, apple and plum trees, and currants in the backyard. The yard gradually turns from a field into a forest. 

At Sydänmaantie 641 exhibition, Niina Pietarinen reflects on the themes of ownership, value measurement, and letting go through her uninhabited grandmother's home. The exhibition photos are from 2022, when Pietarinen documented the abandoned grandmother's home and its surroundings over a six-month period. Two months after Pietarinen's grandmother's death, the grandmother's home was completely emptied. 

In the exhibition works, Pietarinen reflects on the relationship of three generations to possessions. Pietarinen's grandparents, born in the 1920s, had a hard time understanding that intact or otherwise usable objects were not suitable for anyone. Most of the estate was recycled or burned, and only a small part of the objects found a new home with close relatives. 

Through a personal starting point, Pietarinen addresses the universal experience of inheriting property and going through a loved one's estate. What the previous generation saw as worth preserving may not necessarily appear as valuable to later generations. Nowadays, people already have enough possessions of their own, so inherited property can become a burden. 

Ultimately, Sydänmaantie 641 is also about letting go, as the place is abandoned along with the objects. The relationship to the familiar and self-perceived environment changes as the previously regular visits become less frequent, and the subtle changes in the environment can no longer be observed in the usual way. 

Niina Pietarinen (b. 1990, Kangasniemi) is a photographer focused on photobooks and publications. In her works, she reflects on the themes of belonging to family and place using archival images, text, and photography. Pietarinen has graduated as a Master of Arts from the Aalto University Master's Program in Photography in 2023 and as an artist from the Turku University of Applied Sciences Art Academy in 2019. 

Thank you to the Arts Promotion Centre Finland and the Otto A. Malm Donation Fund for supporting my work.