Johanna Ruotsalainen & Simi Susanna Ruotsalainen: I Am a Living Being

I Am a Living Being is a video installation by artists Johanna Ruotsalainen and Simi Susanna Ruotsalainen. The artwork consists of animated human-like facial features illustrating the imagined portrait of ”the earth” projected on a bed of soil, gravel and dirt. The earth is talking about their rights and rights of other beings related to them. The speech is modified from the Universal Declaration of Rights of Mother Earth. By giving a human-like face to the Earth, the artists want to emphasise nature’s worth and demonstrate that the Earth has similar rights as humans and animals to exist and not to be exploited. Is it easier to accept these rights if they look like us and speak our language?