Dallas-Kalevala(2002) They felt color of the sky is the same in both Tokachi and in their hometown in Finland. To get a realization of the gradation of nature and culture in the northern range, they crossed the Eurasia continent and gathered many fragments which reflected on nature and life. On June 27th 2002, they arrived at Wakkanai. Their souvenirs, of which they gathered by stopping at over 24 places, were carried into the 24th Stable and used as an installation in their work.

Marco Casagrande Born in Finland in 1971 Lives in Helsinki Sami Rintala Born in Finland in 1969 Lives in Helsinki A unit of two architects formed in 1998, they are engaged not only in architecture but also in collaboration with other fields. Social and environmental issues are omnipresent in their work. Their large-scale expression that can be described as landscape art is certainly the work of architects. These architects create interestingly emotional landscapes that even suggest a story behind them. 2001 Yokahama Triennale(Yokohama, Japan) 2000 Havana Biennale (Havana, Cuba) 1998 Venice Biennale of International Architecture (Venice, Italy)

Casagrande and Rintala flew to Hokkaido the morning after the opening of the Yokohama Triennale. They are both intelligent-looking, quiet people, also the youngest among all the invited artists. They seem different from other artists, maybe because they are architects. "Coming to Obihiro from Yokohama, we feel relieved. We are, after all, from the forest." Their home, Finland, is the land of forest and lakes, where Santa Claus and Moomin live. There is a grand epic called Kalevala, which begins with the creation of the universe. At a party, Rintala stood and recited a line from it. He said he often does it at parties. We were impressed that they have such a fantastic culture. We also heard that he stripped at the opening of Ozawa Tsuyoshi's exhibition and received applause and frowns. Intelligent or not? "There is only Russia between Finland and Hokkaido. Those three regions belong to the Northern Cultural spheres," they said. We imagined a globe instead of a map. They are probably very close to one another.