Rax Rinnekangas – A filmmaker, an author
Rax Rinnekangas is referred to as a strange bird in Finnish cinema and literature because of the genuinely international nature of his career, his uncompromising artistic choices and ability to express himself through different art forms: films, books and photographs.
He has directed six long feature films and about 20 documentaries on arts, modern music and architecture. (www.btlimited.fi) As an author, he has published novels, essays and short stories in Finland (www.lurraeditions.fi) and novels with great critical success in France (www.editionsphebus.fr), Germany (www.ullsteinbuchverlage.de/verlage/graf-verlag.html) and in Spain (www.planetadelibros.com/el_aleph_editores, www.eldesvelo.com). As a photographer, he has published photo books in Spain.
As a photographer, he worked with different projects around Old Continent: Zerkalo – The Russian light, Spiritus Europaeus, The Colours of Holocaust, Europia, Nordic, Art in Artists, Face to Face.
Zerkalo – The Russian light
The Colours of Holocaust
Spiritus Europaeus
He had over 60 solo exhibitions in many countries, in such places as Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain (2003), Memorial and Museum of Sachsenhausen, Germany (2003), Centro de La Imagen, Mexico City, Mexico (2006), Helsinki Festival (2011), and International Photography Festival, Rome, Italy (2012). Nowadays, he photographs only for his films.
He has received several awards both as filmmaker, photographer and author, among them: State Prize of Photography (1989), State Prize of Literature (1992), The Art Prize of Varsinais-Suomi, Finland (2003), The Honoured Prize of Jury, FIFA, Montreal (2007), The Jury and Audience Prize, 9th Ethnofilmfest, Berlin (2007), The Alex North Prize (for Theo's House -film), Spain (2015).
Art in Artists
Art in Artists
Nordic
Five Master Houses of the World
Five Master Houses of the World -film series speaks about outstanding private houses on different continents designed by the world’s leading architects (Konstantin Melnikov, Alvar Aalto, Luis Barragán, Le Corbusier, Tadao Ando) in the 20th century, the period of modernism, (each film being an independent film). (www.btlimited.fi – DVD box)
Le Cabanon par Le Corbusier
Casa Estudio por Luis Barragán
Villa Mairea of Alvar Aalto
The premiere of Five Master Houses of the World -series took place in Architecture Museum of Finland, Helsinki, in 2011. The 30th FIFA (International Festival of Films in Art), Montreal, Canada, screened the films one by one during 2008–2011 and all together with the Master Class of Rax Rinnekangas in 2012. The event took also place in Casa dell’architectura of Rome, in Museo di Roma in Trastevere, Rome, and in Museo Arte Architettura di Lanziano, and in many other places in Italy during 2012–13, and in the Centre for Architecture, New York, United States, during 2012–13, and in Seoul International Architecture Festival, Korea, in 2013. The films have also been screened in places like Palais de Chaillot, Paris, France, Espacio Ricardo Lorenzo, Santander, Spain, in 2011; Schijndel Huis, Utrecht, Netherlands, Caixa Forum, Palma de Mallorca, Spain, in 2012; Oscar Niemeyer Museum, Brazil, in 2014; Modern Museum of Rufino Tamayo, Mexico City, in 2015, Copenhagen International architecture festival, Denmark in 2015, Festival Internacional de Cine y Arquitectura, Oviedo, Spain, in 2015, Istanbul International architecture and Urban films
festival, Istanbul, Turkey, in 2015.
Feature films
Confessions -trilogy contains three long feature films: A Journey to Eden (2011), Water Marked (2012) and Last Life of Lucifer (2013). They speak about Dante’s interpretation of Adam and Eve spending only seven hours at Eden; Joseph Brodsky’s spirit near the waters of Venice and the lost lives of Holocaust; the change of Lucifer becoming a human under the influence of Rainer Maria Rilke’s poetry and the art of Mathias Grünewald.
A Journey to Eden
Last Life of Lucifer
Water Marked
Trailer of Water Marked
Theo’s House (the world premiere at Quad Cinema, New York, in December 2014) speaks about two Finnish architects, Theo and Vincent, who during 1980’s were involved in the big change of environmental identities - escalating to one coast area where they replaced 320 wooden houses by 32 concrete towers. Ten years later, in 1993, they meet in a castle in former East-Germany. Their discussions go into a conflict over their projects and ethics of architecture. Finally, Theo begins to design a Dream House, but not only for himself but also for a German woman named Clara whom he has met only once in his life, 50 years ago in their childhood. (www.theoshouse.fi)
Trailer of Theo’s House
CIRCLES & STONES
A creative documentary
(Domestic premiere at Love & Anarchy – the 29th Helsinki International Film Festival, September 2016)
Duration: 90 minutes
Directed by Rax Rinnekangas
Oy Bad Taste Ltd
About: After meeting in one film festival, a man and a woman, two totally strangers to each other, decide to travel to the stones of the world to find out why they have always felt stones much more close to themselves than other human beings. During their mystic journey in different countries in different continents, they will also understand more about the missing parts of their inner circles and about the grief and the destiny of Mankind on this stoned planet named Earth.
Screening mode: DCP, Blu-ray
Languages: Finnish, German
Subtitles: English, German, Spanish, French
Distribution: Oy Bad Taste Ltd (international)
PEK – Pirkanmaan Elokuvakeskus (domestic)
Circles & Stones, Mexico
Trailer of Circles & Stones
THE LAST BOOKSHOP OF THE WORLD
A creative documentary
Duration 90 minutes
In roles: Hannu-Pekka Björkman, Kaisa Kukkola, Nacho Angulo, Boris Koneczny
Directed by Rax Rinnekangas
Oy Bad Taste Ltd (Finland) & Sonora Estudios (Spain)
Four Europeans – men and women from different cultures and different fields of art – travel in a mini bus with quality books of world literature in a desert-like landscape to find a distant place where they will establish “the world’s last bookshop”. The isolated place is just perfect for that purpose as there the printed books of the world will be much safer from the termites of entertainment industry and internet than they are in urban cities.
Screening format: DCP, Blu-ray
Languages: Spanish, French, German, Finnish
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish, German, Finnish
Distribution: Oy Bad Taste Ltd & Sonora Estudios (international)
Cinemanse Oy (Finland)
Trailer of The Last Bookshop of the World
Rax Rinnekangas' art work is defined by his understanding of the character of the world. Summing up his philosophy, he says: "Every day we must come to understand that each intelligent act - a sentence, an image, a drawing, a composition - contains the healing game and message that can slow down the encroachment of negativity within us.”
“In this inner process, I count on the philosophies of artists like Andrei Tarkovsky, Edward Hopper, Giorgio Morandi, Eduardo Chillida, W. G. Sebald, Albert Camus and Hannah Arendt – just to mention a few of them in that mental circle where I stand as a pupil...”
Rax Rinnekangas lives in Helsinki, working with his art and film projects regularly around the world. (www.btlimited.fi – btlimited@btlimited.fi)
RAX RINNEKANGAS
A filmmaker, an author