Ronja Siitonen’s Ihastuspäiväkirja (The infatuation diary) on display at Photo North’s Foyer gallery, is a body of work combining photography, video, text and objects.
Ihastuspäiväkirja is a self-portrait and confessional project, for which Siitonen has contacted her former crushes from childhood to the present day, and photographed self-portraits with them. The work explores this performative gesture: documenting the pursuit of an intimate moment with ex-crushes, while at the same time being aware of the camera’s gaze on the individuals. A strange learned performativity can also be found in old diary entries that Siitonen originally wrote just for herself.
“For me, at the heart of infatuation is the dream of the unattainable. The infatuation diary is an attempt to archive and reproduce this unattainable, and to transfer the material from the privacy of a desk drawer to a public form.”
