In the Finnish Civil War I have used models to stage imaginary scenes, trying to picture moments that might have happened but never got recorded in history. The aim of the project is to invoke the past and to examine ways of visually working through traumatic events in history.By concentrating on the small moments and people caught in the middle of a conflict, rather than on the main action, it becomes harder for a viewer to take sides or to condemn the people involved. The project also includes interviewing people of different ages and backgrounds on their views and knowledge of the Civil War to try and find out when a traumatic event just becomes names and dates, when the personal connection to history becomes diluted and is lost or abandoned.
	Although the subject matter is universal and not necessarily tied to a specific time and place it seems to have a special significance in Finland right now. This project appears to touch a nerve within my own generation with our coming to terms with a recent past that for our grandparents and even parents would have been an untouchable terrain. The scenes I’m showing are clearly staged and do not necessarily follow historical fact. I am trying to create scenes that might have been but also sometimes leaving the signs of the present day into the frame, to show traces of the past as a kind of remembrance.