How old is our home?
05 November 2026
When my daughter was three, we moved from Russia to Finland. For a long time, I turned to familiar images and memories of my old life for support. My daughter was growing up here. She was learning the language and getting used to life in Finland. This place was slowly becoming her home. I often looked back at my life in Russia. She was making friends and thinking about her future here.
On our trips to Russia, this difference became especially clear. Places that brought back warm childhood memories for me could make my daughter feel afraid. I returned to familiar places and felt at home. She saw them through her experience of life in Finland. Her idea of what felt familiar and normal was already taking shape here. Coming home for me did not always mean coming home for her.
The project explores two different experiences of adapting to a new country. From the outside, it is not always clear how difficult this can be. My adaptation took longer. I kept comparing my new life with my life in Russia. The move changed my everyday habits and my relationship with the world around me. But I already had life experience and a sense of who I was to help me through these changes. My daughter learned the language and became used to the culture faster. This did not mean the move was easy for her. Her own sense of security was still developing. The new culture became part of how she grew up. It shaped her relationships and the way she understood herself and the world.
Over time, our usual roles began to change. My daughter became my guide to a culture she was more familiar with than I was. Through her knowledge of the language, her friends and her discoveries, I was learning how to live here too. At the same time, my experience helped me support her: together, we tried to understand what was happening, find words for her feelings and get through difficult moments. Each of us knew something that could help the other. As we learned to live in a new place, we were changing and learning from each other.
In this project, home changes as we change. We share memories and everyday moments, but our different cultural experiences shape who we are in different ways. As we grow attached to a new place, we also feel the loss of what we left behind. Flowers are already growing in ground that is still damaged in places. What we have gained becomes part of our lives, while what we have lost stays with us.