Inside and Beside the Camp

The Academy of Fine Arts at the University of the Arts Helsinki The books title Inside and Beside the Camp refers to German barracks on the Tulliniemi peninsula in Hanko, Finland. The peninsula was the point of arrival for German troops who began their transit through Finland from 1942 to 1944. The area closed after World War II, but it attracted public attention in 2014 when the City of Hanko opened a nature trail there, and partly forgotten German barracks from the transit camp were discovered next to the trail. The transit camp is in focus in the Deutsches Lager research project (2015–2018). The research project both resembles archeology and is archeology – it effectively excavates history both physically – objects and texts – and visually – photographs and moving images. The artistic researchers and editors of the anthology Jan Kaila and Japo Knuutila process the visualizations of this project. The goal when preparing Inside and Beside the Camp was to gather an interesting and perhaps even a seemingly heterogeneous team of writers. The editors sought to cover the themes and the follow-up questions both in depth and contextually. As a result, the book is a kind of kaleidoscope or at least a cubist image. Oula Silvennoinen writes about the controversial relations between Finland and Germany during Second World War. Jan Fast gives an account of the history of the camp at Tulliniemi in Hanko and of the excavations conducted there. The discussion between Turo-Kimmo Lehtonen and Jan Kaila examines guilt and other issues regarding archaeological finds. The text by Irmeli Koskinen and Pirkko Pohjakallio investigates the potential benefits of collaboration between artistic and scientific research. Mats Burström recalls his conflict archaeology project in Cuba, while Björnar Olsen and Þóra Pétursdóttir describe their practice of contemporary archaeology in northern Norway, which bears interesting parallels with our own investigations around Tulliniemi. Sasha Colby writes about the potential of poetic archaeology in the light of the work of Charles Olson and Henri Cartier-Bresson. The book was published during the exhibition Poethic Archaelogy/Deutsches Lager – Inside and Beside the Camp in Exhibition Laboratory gallery in Helsinki. Inside and Beside the Camp (2017) Editors: Jan Kaila & Japo Knuutila Graphic design: Samuli Knuutila Publisher: The Academy of Fine Arts at University of the Arts Helsinki ISBN 978-952-7131-36-7 Tietoa Poeettinen arkeologia –tutkimushankkeesta: http://www.uniarts.fi/poeettinen-arkeologia