The Hidden Spots 2025-2026
site-specific, immersive and interactive installation/exhibition in a century-old house in Övermark
The house will reopen in summer 2026!
Vaasan Museot | Vaasas Museer | Vaasa Museums
An unconventional exhibition to immerse oneself in the lapses of memory and streams of time, flowing through the ́deserted house ́ as original insight Presenting the large-scale installation ‘The Hidden Spots’, part of the interdisciplinary project ‘What is Left in the Temple of Memory’, which seeks to investigate and depict these dynamics and phenomena.
The context-specific work is the result of a series of interventions, manipulations, and artistic elements that take shape, develop, and re-inhabit the spaces of a century-old house. In unusual places or nooks, the immersive installation encourages the public to interact and explore the space in search of these ´hidden spots´. The house is not just an exhibition premises — it becomes the work of art itself.
The dwelling was frozen in time, with all the goods of the family that has lived there since its construction, and this allowed the artists to interact not only with the space, but with the very objects and elements moulded within it. Some interventions directly rework these materials, even simply through conceptual actions.
The multi-interdisciplinary production, among experimental visual art interventions, features also poetry, word art, and sound components and works in collaboration with Stefan Backas.
One of the sound piece in collaboration with Backas includes recordings from the Society of Swedish Literature in Finland archive. Furthermore, with a growing desire and vision to explore the concept of ´moving artwork´, Hasaj and Gelain collaborated with performer Ailish Maher to become one of these memories, consciousnesses, and anecdotes concealed in the house.
Thank you to Roger Palmroos and Camilla Ågren.
Supported by Arts Promotion Centre Finland, Svensk-Österbottniska Samfundet and Svenska Kulturfonden.
About the opening and events program in English, Swedish, Finnish in 2025
~~~~
The poems and textual interventions are written in English, Swedish, Finnish, Albanian, and Italian.



Art interventions
Veranda → 1) basket with yarn - sound artwork with poem (in collaboration with Stefan Backas, narrator Margaretha Sillander [smartphone and 70s headphone, 30 seconds in loop, seven-line poem in Swedish]); 2) closet - children's shoes, original belongings and diaries; 3) table - clay moulds (white air drying clay and acrylic paint, variable dimensions; 4) closet - jars with organic material & writing (original 5-10 liter glass jars, water and bioplastic, organic natural material & three questions in Swedish/Finnish, colored pencils on cotton paper 10,5cmx15cm); 5) attic door - canvas and mixed media on fabric (wooden frame 70cmx170cm, white canvas, cotton and synthetic fabric 150cmx300cm, acrylic colors, sewn buttons).
Entrance → 6) bathroom door - sound artwork, echo (in collaboration with Stefan Backas [microphone pre amp, effect unit, speaker, power cords]); 7) portrait - original document behind (original material covered in plastic and hung with thread, 21cmx10cm); 8) chest - sawdust and small objects (original antique wooden chest and various original and non-original objects); 9) small closet - tomato, photos & writing (white marker on organic object, two questions in Finnish & inkjet print on satin photographic paper and ballpoint pen on photographic, 8,5cmx12,5cm, six-line poem in Finnish); 10) frontal wall - welcome poem on canvas (canvas and water based paint, 76x44cm, six-line poem in English).
Kitchen → 11) closet - photo in light box & object (inkjet print on photographic paper in plexiglass 89cmx73cm, electricity-powered spotlight lamp, pawer cord & small plastic toy); 12) closet - glass of milk (organic white liquid); 13) old telephone & sound work (in collaboration with Stefan Backas, narrator Stefan Backas [XXX, 20 seconds in loop, two-line poem in Swedish]); 14) table - sewn napkins with text (mixed linen fabric 40cmx40xm and red cotton thread, two texts in English and two in Swedish); 15) windows - poems (XXX poems in English, white marker on glass, variable dimension); 16) drawer - laurel (organic object and satin ribbon); 17) closet - cups & miniature (white air drying clay and acrylic paint, 4cmx2cm); 18) sink - water, shell and send on a plate (original objects and organic material floating or immersed in water); 19) stove - pot with wax (melted wax with black powdered dye); 20) work table - pot with wax and clay sculpture (white air drying into melted wax with black powdered dye); 21) hatch - sound work (in collaboration with Stefan Backas, narrator Melinda Maris [speaker, mixer, Eyra device and laser sensor, power cords, 32 seconds in loop, three-line poem in English]); 22) cellar - spiral light work (electricity-powered electroluminescent wires 800cm, variable dimension); 23) mirror - folded note & writing (question in Italian, ballpoint pen on original paper XXX).
Small room → 24) desk - cubes with pictures & writing (wooden board, 43 wooden cubes 3,5cmx3,5cm, inkjet print on paper, manually transferred images with medium & question in Swedish); 25) window sill - matches & writing (pencil on wood, question in Italian); 26) lamp - thread & poem (glued wool thread in the internal part of lamp shade covering, three-line poem written in one line in Finnish); 27) photo album - mixed photos (original antique photo album, 63 inkjet prints on fine art matt paper, 6,5cmx10,5cm and 10,5cmx16,5cm).
Living room → 28) fireplace - original letters crumpled up (three original documents in Swedish/Albanian, inkjet print on copy paper, A4); 29) stereo - sound artworks in cassette (#1 in collaboration with Stefan Backas, using the archive material of Society of Swedish Literature in Finland & The Finnish Literature Society [original radio stereo, manipulation and reinterpretation of archive material subsequently recorded on tape, 1 hour] / #2 by Pádriag Croke & Ailish Maher, from the Ailish Maher performance); 30) closet - hanging keys (130 original iron and metal keys, string and thread, wooden frame 100cmx70cm); 31) closet - hanging fishing nets with hair (original material, string and hooks, 150cmx60cmx70cm); 32) windows - poems (XXX, poems in English, white marker on glass, variable dimension); 33) carpet - box with coal and teeth (wooden box 8cmx8cmx5,5cm, glued cotton thread, text in English & original carpet and cotton 172cmx235cm and synthetic fabric 150cmx230cm); 34) rocking chair - puppet and sound work (activate with a sensor under the sofa, in collaboration with Stefan Backas, narrator Bekim Hasaj [speaker, mixer, Eyra device and laser sensor, power cords, 23 seconds, five-line poem in English]); 35) drawer - original letters, photo in light box, photos + framed digital collage by Ailish Maher (inkjet print on photographic paper in plexiglass, electricity-powered spotlight lamp & inkjet print on Kodak glossy photographic paper, variable dimension).
Bedroom → 36) bed - frottage/prints on sheet and poem on pillows (body painting on seven single cotton sheets, variable dimensions, water-based paint & hand-stitched four-line poem in English) ; 37) dresser - folded note & handkerchief (question in Swedish, ballpoint pen on original paper XXX & hold cotton handkerchief with red ink); 38) fireplace - photo in light box (inkjet print on photographic paper in plexiglass, electricity-powered spotlight lamp); 39) cabinet - books and photo in light box (covered books and inkjet print on photographic paper in plexiglass, electricity-powered spotlight lamp); 40) windows - poems (XXX poems in English, white marker on glass, variable dimension); 41) closet - bouquet of flowers (tribute to Ailish Maher performance) 42) closet - prints and writing on folded canvas (inkjet print on paper, manually transferred images and words in Finnish with medium on canvas, consequently bent and shaped, variable dimension).
Garden → 43) boat - paper (original old boat, handmade recycled book paper); 44) hanging laundry - writing (question in Swedish, acrylic paint on cotton and linen fabric, variable dimension); 45) Shed window - video (Rear projection onto suspended plastic using a projector, MP4 video, colour, no sound, variable dimensions, question in Finnish.)
And I bag pardon
when we reunite
in this familiar but
crooked, topsy-turvy
twisted home
Protected under a roof of regret
you are the only one left
on a chair of a dull kitchen
Letting go
we lie down in rodent holes
to confide and forgive
each other in the dust
About the project
The interdisciplinary project ‘What is Left in the Temple of Memory’ is based on community research, video art and site-specific installations to investigate the dynamics and phenomena between memory and time.
The artist duo Hasaj-Gelain probed the human perception and alteration, the traces left behind that wear out quickly and those that endure, history that fades and evaporates by repeating itself. What was so important and what is now – linked to the personal, human and transcendental dimension. Perceiving differently the possible values of impermanence in perpetual awareness.
From this universal perspective, as a counterbalance, attention is paid and value is given to sharing existen-ces that bring us back to our present, to our surroundings.
‘Home’ as a body… as symbol of us. Intimacy and individuality, but also connective structures to the community and collectivity. Personal memories that belong to us, and reminiscences imprinted unaware within us.
Disused, abandoned, forgotten places what do they whisper… what do they exude?
The immersive and interactive installation ´The Hidden Spots´ attempts this depiction. A deserted old hou-se becomes a work of art through targeted interventions and modifications, also including and concealing multidisciplinary art in the environment. Apparently usual, empty settings for the public to interact with, discovering memories and revealing stories that for some reason have now fallen into oblivion.
What is Left in the Temple of Memory Project > web page
The event is part of the public art development project in rural areas (DPARA) > web page
Copyright © 2024-2026 The Hidden Spots by Bekim Hasaj & Valentina Gelain
the contents of this site may not be reproduced without the permission


