Home and reconstruction in the drawings of children in post war Lapland

Home and reconstruction in the drawings of children in post war LaplandThe expression "Winter and Continuation War" [1939–40 and 1941–44], established in the Finnish historical discourse, have erased the term Lapland War [1944–45] from the national memory of World War Two. Yet, Finnish Lapland experienced a collective material and mental disaster in the autumn of 1944, when retreating German troops destroyed the material culture, buildings and infrastructure of the province virtually in their entirety.I study the physical and mental landscapes of childhood in Finnish Lapland in the post war era during 1940s. The material consists of 141 drawings and paintings by Finnish school-children, collected by a Canadian relief worker. In this presentation I concentrate on images of home and housing.Interpretation of the material involves cultural perspectives that are informed by visual culture studies and that draw on individuals’ interpretations of place and the cultural context of the children´s drawings (Karin Aronsson (1997), Mieke Bal (1991), Gillian Rose (2001), Yi-Su Tuan (1977).)The children create the pictures in a particular visual culture, and all sets of images have a particular cultural perspective associated with them. The pictures are also interrelated. A place is not only a physical location but also a mental structure in which the individual lives in a meaningful relationship to world. Anniina KoivurovaAnniina.koivurova@ulapland.fiLapin yliopistoPL 122, 96101 RovaniemiKey words: Second World War, history of art education, national imaginary, reconstruction Author biography This study is part of the project FEENIKS – Art and culture in the mental and material reconstruction process following the Lapland War. http://www.ulapland.fi/feeniksKoivurova, Anniina D.A. (Art and Design, 2010). Lecturer in Art Education, University of Lapland since 2014. Research Assistant, substitute Lecturer in Art Education and substitute Lecturer in Art and Culture Studies during 1997-2012, Lecturer in Visual Culture during 2012-2013; University of Lapland.