Olli Aarni & Maarit Bau Mustonen

Girdėjau daug tokių / Olen kuullut monia tällaisia asioita

Olli Aarni and Maarit Bau Mustonen’s work girdėjau daug tokių / Olen kuullut monia tällaisia asioita (2024) is a bilingual site-specific artist’s publication in Lithuanian and Finnish. It consists of sounds recorded in Lithuania and transformed into a printed form. The work traces and records the experience of exploring a new place and language through sounds. 

The sensitive, absurd, and fragmented text of the publication is composed of language collected from a poetry club and a quiz, translated in real time from Lithuanian into Finnish using the listening function of the Google Translate mobile app. The translator has at least partially misinterpreted what it has heard. 

The publication contains field recordings made in Švenčionėliai. These sounds have been transmitted through speakers to the cover images of books removed from the local library’s collection while scanning them. The images have been vibrated by sounds such as the Žeimena river, a freight wagon on a windy day, and the low hum of the malt factory at night.

The work was commissioned by Trainspotting Art Residency in Švenčionėliai, and it is published by Multipöly, a Helsinki-based experimental publishing collective. Graphic design was created by Tytti Halonen.

Olli Aarni and Maarit Bau Mustonen are artists living and working in Helsinki.