After the mother died, it took six months to sell the flat. The daughter went there once a week to have a cup of coffee.

Elina Saloranta’s video work Room records the changes that take place in a bedroom after the death of the occupant.

The work consists of virtually unmoving images that change through slow cross-fades. At first, the room is untouched, only the bedclothes have been moved to one side. Then the space gradually begins to empty, until all that remains is a single piece of furniture: an enormous, old-fashioned double bed. In the end, it is surrounded by objects belonging to the room’s new occupants. On the soundtrack we hear footsteps, the clink of a coffee cup, and the whirr of an old vacuum cleaner. When a plastic sheet is spread over the bed, the vacuum cleaner slowly becomes still, like an exhalation.

Sound design: Tatu Virtamo

Typography: Jorma Hinkka

Duration: 9 min.

Elina Saloranta (b.1968) is a Helsinki-based artist who mainly works with moving image. She studied filmmaking in the United States at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (MFA 2002). Room forms part of her doctoral studies at the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts.

Watch Elina Saloranta's video works at AV-arkki.