The Rocky Legacies of Finnish Anti-Uranium Mining Social Movements

The rock art of Pessi Manner

Abstract

When international mining companies rushed to prospect for uranium in Finland in the early 2000s, localised anti-uranium mining social movements formed in different parts of the country. Among the activists was Finnish artist Pessi Manner whose rock carvings remain the social movements’ most enduring legacies. In this article, I discuss the history of uranium prospecting and anti-uranium activism in Finland, analyse Manner’s interventions as examples of atomic rock art, and argue that, in using rock as his art medium, Manner was able to elicit an affective connection between feeling bodies and a landscape in need of protection, a quality that also contributes to the capacity of his artworks for future communication.