Direction / Päivi Niemi

Filming & Editing / Juho Länsiharju

Animations / Verneri Kontto

Original cinefilm by Kaj Franck digitized by Kavi

Special thanks to Tauno Tarna

This short film was created for Iittala’s exhibition 'It's about time'. The concept of the exhibition, created by London based architect Jack Self, was to get the visitors radically rethink their relationship with time: to reflect on today and speak to tomorrow. This was inspired and based on the work and design philosophy of Kaj Franck.

In this film created for the exhibition I wanted to weave together the themes of universality, humanity and the pursuit for timelessness always present in Franck’s work. I had the privilege to access footage filmed by Franck himself from his travels all over the world. Watching through the hours of material I could see the world almost as if I was looking through his eyes. What was he filming, what caught his eye, what interested him? Browsing through his sketches, writings and the vast archive of objects he created I had also the pile of books written about his work and to build on. As so much has already been said, I made my humble attempt to create a sort of a visual montage of his quest for universal basic forms through the lens of time.

I owe a lot to my mentor, interior architect and designer Tauno Tarna. He was Franck's friend, and since his passing has dedicated himself to preserving his legacy. He was of great help in curating the work and all the objects we filmed were from his archives.