Whitney Biennial 2024: Even Better Than the Real Thing

Film

Born 1981 in Anár, Sápmi (Inari, Finland)
Lives in Jåhkåmåhkke, Sápmi (Jokkmokk, Sweden)

As a Sámi activist dedicated to decolonization and the preservation of Mother Earth, Jenni Laiti views film as a medium to advocate for climate justice and Indigenous self-determination. Teardrops of our Grandmother, created together with Carl-Johan Utsi, concentrates on the changing glacial landforms that were once seen as eternal to the Sámi peoples. Asserting the inseparability of landscape and selfhood, Laiti illustrates how mechanisms of oppression continually endanger the existence of Indigenous peoples and their geographies. In the 2022 video installation Bivdit luosa máhccat // Asking the salmon to return, Laiti is seen entering the Deatnu River (modern-day areas of Norway and Finland), where the salmon population has been drastically reduced due to climate change driven by exploitative hunting practices of Western companies. Over the course of the film, the artist becomes the displaced salmon returning home, again reflecting on the inseparability of nature and selfhood that is central to the Sámi identity.