Annamaria Valavaara

’Last night I dreamt I was in Manderley again’
 
The melancholy, hypnotic opening line of Daphne du Maurier’s book — bears resemblance to my own dream, in which I see my hand opening the gate to Meritorppa, a house that haunts me nightly. In these dreams, doorways appear, leading to strangely familiar rooms. A storm is on the way.
 
The film Meritorppa and the book Neverleave are both visual narratives that portray intensified memories and a longing for home, revealing how we are inseparable from place; how place is inseparable from us. Neverleave represents the inner world of the film – the stories are based on the memories of the inhabitants of the cottage. 
 
Gaston Bachelard once said:  ‘’Memories of the outside world will never have the same tonality as those of home and, by recalling these memories, we add to our store of dreams; we are never real historians, but always near poets, and our emotion is perhaps nothing but an expression of a poetry that was lost.’’ This quote is the starting point for my poetic documentaries, drawings, prints and stories.
 
Every cut, choice and drawn line seek to capture moments of time lived and the echos of what once was.