The concept of gesture can be understood in a Brechtian sense as societal. Yet, the word gesture carries with it a sense of smallness and subtlety. In literature, gestures are bodily anchor points, movements, or shocks. In this issue of Nokturno, the gestures of the works are subtle but also grow in their materiality to a societal scale.

Niina Turtola’s Air, Ilma consists of a chain of letters written on receipt paper, where the words “ilma” (air in Finnish) and “air” repeat and intertwine. Air, Ilma is a part of a bigger work, one part of which has just been published in Tuli & Savu’s latest issue. Publishing the work in pieces across different channels, now also in Nokturno, is a fragmenting gesture that conceals the work’s massiveness; the total length of the poem is 20.38 meters, of which three meters from 1.5 to 4.5 meters are now published in Nokturno.

Henri Toivanen’s work Neliöjuuret echoes the minimalist aesthetics of digital poetry; in the work, meanings and spaces are woven between roots, squares, and the numbers 0 and 1. The work is a calming, bounded piece of art that begins to make one dizzy when engaged with.

In Hanna-Mari Ojala’s video work Taide/Art dance and interviews are combined; the artist has interviewed her close ones about the meanings of art. The soundscape is rough and varied; the range of interviewees spans from 3 to 78 years old. Alongside the lively soundscape, the deliberate gestures of the dance allow space for listening and understanding.

In Kati-Annika Ansas’ poetry video Tuomenkehrääjäkoi (In English: The Bird-Cherry Ermine) birth and death drift close to each other; the small webbing gestures of the larvae grow into the destruction of the entire tree as they combine.

This issue of Nokturno is the last of 2024 and also the last for the current editorial team. Next year, new winds will blow in Nokturno with a new multi-headed editorial team. Nokturno still warmly welcomes poetry proposals at .

Enchanting starry skies and a snowy end of the year,
On behalf of Nokturno,
Elina Sallinen

The image is a still from Hanna-Mari Ojala’s work Taide/Art.