Mnemonia is a collaborative project between artist-researcher Emilia Tikka, reindeer herder Oula A Valkeapää and artist-researcher Leena Valkeapää. The artwork is an installation of stories in three temporalities, where centuries-old migration in the rhythm of the reindeer intertwines human, reindeer and landscape. The nomadic reindeer herding culture is in a danger of vanishing in the Finnish Sápmi, but the land and the reindeer carries the shared memories of the past. The installation includes two films, moving between past, present and speculative futures. The work combines research on contemporary bioscience of transgenerational epigenetic memories and tacit knowledge on human reindeer relations. The outcome does not separate bioscience and reindeer cosmologies but rather weaves them together as stories of hopeful futures.

The first story follows a reindeer herder in 2021, who lives in the reindeer's time and follows their movements. The everyday rituals of living in the landscape keep alive the ancient connection between the herder and the herd. The land carries the shared memories of past migrations. However the migration in reindeer's natural rhythm has become difficult in the current setting of the Sápmi in the Finnish Sub-Arctic. Some of the complex reasons for this include modernization, border politics and warming climate. Oula Valkeapää`s autobiographical short film shows how the vanishing of the nomadic way of life and migrating in the reindeer`s natural rhythm, leads into fading of the ancient connection and between herder, reindeer and landscape.

The second part of Mnemonia, is a short film in the form of magical realism. The story is set in the year 2102, when the Gulf Stream has collapsed and the Arctic climate is slowly cooling after decades without snow. Only few tame reindeer have survived the storms, echoing the long lost nomadic culture. A scientist is wandering through empty beaches of the arctic ocean. She is searching for remains of a by-gone reindeer who used to migrate in the area. She believes that the reindeer carries epigenetic memories of her ancestors in its bones and therefore could help her to remember.