Finland is one of the most forested countries in the world. Almost 75 percent of the country is covered by forests – that’s over 26 million hectares of which Jaakko Kahilaniemi owns 100 hectares. His conceptual project 100 Hectares of Understanding is his attempt to understand the forest area he inherited: »Throughout adulthood my relationship with the forest has been somewhat discordant and attitude towards my inheritance has been indifferent. Recent explorations in the forest, and in the world of forestry have managed to provoke my interest towards unfamiliar property of mine. I study what nature has to offer to urbanized people and I will try to create new ways of thinking and ways to experience and feel the forest. I capture nature through my lens before applying the alchemical process that makes art out of the familiar.I arbitrarily mix various types of pictures with each other, and define them as part of a larger visual entity. I am working with the method of deconstruction, but rather than creating physical work out of the results of my private rituals in the forest, I unveil the result through the medium of photography. For the unknown to become familiar requires both physical and delicate acts: to nurture and to tame, to master and to yield. My photographs are testimonial, traces of my aspirations towards understanding and awareness. Photography, for me, is a gateway to the very core of my thoughts and imagination. In a way, I am a contemporary incarnation of a land artist, a land artist of the digital age, in which the photograph has gained more value than ever as a means of communication and information. I see similarities between my acts in the forest and walking artist Hamish Fulton’s walks, which he records with photographs and poems. Taking inspiration from Fluxus and the traditions of Arte Povera, I seek to encounter the forest with a playful and open approach. 100 Hectares of Understanding consists of the objects that I’ve found, the acts that I’ve photographed, the sculptures I’ve made and visual secrets that I have created.