SIIS NIIN, suuri ihmetys (WHAT…. A Great Wonder) is a book by Maria Matinmikko combining autotheory, fiction, poetry and essay writing with photography and painting. It is about writing, enchantment, looking back, fears, and the disjointedness of reality. It presents an intimate world in which everyday life is conceptualized and harnessed to propose new horizons of being. The book is an idiosyncratic inquiry that propels the imagination down intriguing byways. Turning every stone and pondering every facet, it weaves together subjects as diverse as meditations on childhood, Japan, the northern city of Oulu, parasites, the narrator’s voice, gender, clothing styles, empathy, finitude and filth. It challenges the reader with its cornucopia of contradictions and corporeal contemplations. It poses many questions, some of which are impossible to answer. But what, ultimately, is the meaning of impossibility?
The book is published jointly by Siltala and Parvs Publishing, accompanied by an audiobook diving deeper into the book’s themes produced by sound artist J. Koho.
Maria Matinmikko’s previous release, Valohämy (‘Chiaroscuro’, Siltala & Parvs, 2023), was awarded the Eliel Aspelin Prize as best art book of the year. The book has also been nominated for the Botnia Literature Prize. An audiobook of Valohämy is also available, featuring an electroacoustic soundtrack composed by sound artist Jari Koho.
“Around the edges of my irises, the moon begins to splinter like a translucent hybrid, an infinite spectrum, a museal anomaly, a sprawling, pulsating void.”
– Maria Matinmikko