Nastja Säde Rönkkö: salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears exhibition at Beaconsfield London

The third Below Zero Finnish Art Prize exhibition (opens a new window) at Beaconsfield London presents a new body of work by Nastja Säde Rönkkö.

Rönkkö’s poetic 15-minute three-channel work takes as its starting point the commonly held – yet incorrect – belief that blood contains the same amount of salt as seawater. Three ‘narrators’ – a teardrop, a drop of ‘golden’ blood and a sweat droplet tell their own stories of love and loss in this moving work shot in HD video during February 2023 in London. The rarest blood type in the world, Rhnull, is sometimes referred to as ‘golden blood’.

Below Zero, the unique UK-based contemporary art prize for Finnish artists emerging on the international scene, returns to Beaconsfield London (opens a new window) in association with the Finnish Institute in the UK and Ireland. This is the third time the prize worth £15,000 has been awarded. Our new collaborator is Serlachius Museums (opens a new window), one of Finland’s most important cultural institutions.

Below Zero offers something different. Beaconsfield commissions are unique in their collaborative nature. Mentored residencies support artists to be brave and take risks. This creative support aims to make the excitement of innovative practice accessible to all: an ambition that matches the founding principle of Serlachius Museums. The prize winner is offered a solo exhibition of the London commission at Serlachius Museums in 2024 with the option of a residency in Mänttä.

Nastja Säde Rönkkö (opens a new window), the third recipient of the Below Zero Finnish Art Prize, describes her practice as investigating relationships between the digital era, power, humanity and the future of our planet. She works with video, performance, installation and text. She is fascinated with how concepts such as love, slowness or affection can be silent yet radical ways to be and act in the world. Her practice dreams about the future and explores presence through the politics and poetics of emotion. She has developed three new moving image works on site for this commission, produced with Beaconsfield.

We interviewed Nastja during the residency, you can read it here (opens a new window).

Images from the residency and production on Beaconsfield’s page here (opens a new window).

Nastja Säde Rönkkö: salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears. Below Zero Finnish Art Prize UK Residency & Exhibition at Beaconsfield London (22 Newport Street), 16 March – 6 May 2023 (Wed – Sat 12–5pm).

Nastja Säde Rönkkö returns to London to talk about ‘salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears’ with writer Chloe Carroll, on Thursday 27 April 2023 at 7pm @Beaconsfield Gallery Vauxhall. More info and booking here (opens a new window).