Helena Savio - Home from home/Takaisin kotiin
240 SEK
Every third month I made a long, 24 hour trip from Gamleby, Småland, Sweden by bus, boat and train to Hankasalmi, Finland. My visits usually lasted around ten days.
- BindingCloth binding
- Dimensions225x180x14
- ISBN9789163969188
- LanguageSwedish
- LayoutAndrea Warbrandt, Helena Savio
- Pages96
- PhotographerHelena Savio
- Printed byLivonia Print
- Published Year2018
- PublisherNuDå förlag
- TitleHome from home
- Weight444
Description
Article no.: 9789163969188
Home from home is an expression meaning that you feel comfortable in a place that is not your home.
I visited my mother for the first time after she moved into the nursing home Metsätähti in September 2015. Mother passed away in May 2017.
Irma Kanerva Savio was born in Antrea, outside Vyborg 1923, which is part of Karelia that belongs to the Soviet Union today. Her family was forced to leave their home twice during the wars and was splitup and had to live in different places in Finland. Maybe this made us very restless, mother, father Esko, brothers Veli-Pekka and Antti and I were constantly moving in order to find a better life. I left home at age of 16 to work in Stockholm and later in Helsinki. After I moved the time between visits became longer and longer and reunions bitter. Since 1975 I have been permanently living in Sweden.
Every third month I made a long, 24 hour trip from Gamleby, Småland by bus, boat and train to Hankasalmi, Finland. My visits usually lasted around ten days.
There is a beautiful dialogue in the book The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry´s between the Fox and the Little Prince:
´What should I do?`asked the little prince. ´You must be very patient` replied the fox. ´First you will sit down at a little distance from me, like that, in the grass. I shall watch you out of the corner of my eye and you will say nothing. Words are a source of misunderstandings. But every day, you can sit a little closer to me…`
I followed the fox’s advice and visited my mother every day at the same time, after lunch. We used to drink coffee and watch TV, old Finish movies and daytime soap operas! I photographed our meetings and slowly she become comfortable with the camera. I told her that my camera is a very expensive one and, she should sit still! I also said that I was going to make a photographic book. We had many small conversations and slowly much of the old bitterness from my side disappeared. Many times mother was waiting for me behind the front door.
I stayed in our old home where time stood still and everything was left in the way it was while my mother was still living there, like scents and flowers, except some of the things my brother had moved to her new room. I also recognized that every photograph I had given to mother was neatly framed on the wallI. I photographed in and outside the house, and the garden. During that summer I picked her flowers. For the remainder of my stay I took long walks in a nearby forest and biked around the neighborhood.
I confronted my own history and many times I just wanted to drop everything and run away.
Slowly my travels turned to a ritual, the same food, the same chocolate, the same drink every day. It was comforting. I met people on trains and on boats and exchanged traveler's stories.
I visited my mother for the first time after she moved into the nursing home Metsätähti in September 2015. Mother passed away in May 2017.
Irma Kanerva Savio was born in Antrea, outside Vyborg 1923, which is part of Karelia that belongs to the Soviet Union today. Her family was forced to leave their home twice during the wars and was splitup and had to live in different places in Finland. Maybe this made us very restless, mother, father Esko, brothers Veli-Pekka and Antti and I were constantly moving in order to find a better life. I left home at age of 16 to work in Stockholm and later in Helsinki. After I moved the time between visits became longer and longer and reunions bitter. Since 1975 I have been permanently living in Sweden.
Every third month I made a long, 24 hour trip from Gamleby, Småland by bus, boat and train to Hankasalmi, Finland. My visits usually lasted around ten days.
There is a beautiful dialogue in the book The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry´s between the Fox and the Little Prince:
´What should I do?`asked the little prince. ´You must be very patient` replied the fox. ´First you will sit down at a little distance from me, like that, in the grass. I shall watch you out of the corner of my eye and you will say nothing. Words are a source of misunderstandings. But every day, you can sit a little closer to me…`
I followed the fox’s advice and visited my mother every day at the same time, after lunch. We used to drink coffee and watch TV, old Finish movies and daytime soap operas! I photographed our meetings and slowly she become comfortable with the camera. I told her that my camera is a very expensive one and, she should sit still! I also said that I was going to make a photographic book. We had many small conversations and slowly much of the old bitterness from my side disappeared. Many times mother was waiting for me behind the front door.
I stayed in our old home where time stood still and everything was left in the way it was while my mother was still living there, like scents and flowers, except some of the things my brother had moved to her new room. I also recognized that every photograph I had given to mother was neatly framed on the wallI. I photographed in and outside the house, and the garden. During that summer I picked her flowers. For the remainder of my stay I took long walks in a nearby forest and biked around the neighborhood.
I confronted my own history and many times I just wanted to drop everything and run away.
Slowly my travels turned to a ritual, the same food, the same chocolate, the same drink every day. It was comforting. I met people on trains and on boats and exchanged traveler's stories.