10 päivää on yhtä kuin nolla/Ten days equals zero -tilataideteos

Yhteisteos Jarno Valkosen kanssa. Taideteos on osa metsämarjanpoimintaa tutkivaa tieteellistä tutkimusprojektiamme.Art installation Ten days equals zero is made by Pekka Rantanen and Jarno Valkonen. The work is Thailand’s flag which is made out of 60 empty buckets in red, white and blue. The amount of wild berries that is needed to fill these equals about to 10 days of picking in order for a picker to cover the costs of traveling and living in Finland. This means that a Thai-picker needs to fill 6 times the number of buckets within 60 days in order not to end up losing money, and even perhaps gaining a little. Rantanen and Valkonen argue that the installation shows concretely how much wild berries a Thai-picker need to pick and how much effort is really needed in the task of filling the empty buckets – and after filling these picking for profit. Making profit means really hard work. Emptiness of the buckets represents the economical risk that the Thai-pickers take when they decide to travel to Finland for seasonal work from Thailand as loans are taken to cover the cost of travel, and gasoline, food and accommodation is to be paid in Finland. Wild berry companies need the buckets filled in order to continue with their business. Wild berry products are often stated to be ‘Made in Finland’, but are they really as they are picked by migrant seasonal labour. Combining official ‘Made in Finland’ sign with buckets representing Thailand’s national flag the authors wish to open space for thinking the complexity of the wild berry business in Finland as globalization where two distant localities, people and business form chains where people and capital move, wild berries turn into commodities, and profits are produced and risks taken, and debts at worst remaining.Pekka Rantasen ja Jarno Valkosen 10 päivää on yhtä kuin nolla -installaatio kuvastaa marjamäärää, joka thaimaalaisen poimijan pitää poimia 10 päivän aikana, jotta pysyy tahdissa, jolla saa nipin napin marjamatkasta aiheutuvat kulut katettua. Jos poimija tekee poimintatyötä 60 päivää Suomessa, niin poimijan pitäisi täyttää 6 tällaista installaatiota metsämarjoilla kulujen kattamiseksi. Installaation tekijät haluavat ämpäri-installaatiollaan näyttää konkreettisesti sen, millaisista marjamääristä thaimaalaisten poimijoiden kohdalla on kysymys. On selvää, että helpolla poimintaurakasta ei selviä, ja voiton saaminen on kovan työn takana. Ämpärit kuvastavat edessä olevaa urakkaa, mutta tuovat tyhjyydellään