MATTI AIKIO

Matti Aiko. Photo: Petvin Sandström

Matti Aikio, born 1980. MA in contemporary art from Tromsø Academy of Contemporary Art. He comes originally from Vuotso, southern most Sámi village in Finland. He is also reindeer herder and participates frequently in reindeer herding work.

Aikio works mainly with video installations, film, photography, sound and spatial installations.

His artistic motivation is rising from an attempt to try to understand nomadic world views and nomadic philosophy if such exists. He states that the ever increasing conflict between indigenous communities and nation states is a symptom of the collision of two fundamentally different worlds that cannot co-exist in the same territory. As the Nordic nation states are tightening their grip over natural resources in Sámi people’s lands, the resistance of the indigenous communities only proves that they haven’t been completely colonized yet.

Recently Aikio’s works have been presented in Tromsø, Oslo, Salamanca, Hammerfest, New Castle, Rovaniemi, Hamburg, Valencia, Singapore, Milan, Documenta 14 in Kassel (Pile O’ Sápmi Tribute), Screen City Biennial in Stavanger, Santiago de Chile and Ii. In 2014 he participated at COMO Clube event at Sao Paulo 31st Bienal.