Secret Words and Related Stories

2013-2016 (ongoing), video installation with a book, glass works and reading performance

“The work consists of series of true stories. Each tale concerns the secret history of a password—as told by its owner to the artist Jonna Kina. While upholding the boundary between personal and public information, the intimate formation of our chosen ‘secret words’ pull in another direction. Usually created to protect one’s private data, passwords often reflect personal memories or other confidential references. Experienced as a series of narrative vignettes, these confessions are, by turns, thoughtful, humorous, and poignant.”

–Nadim Samman, Curator-at-large, Langen Foundation, Düsseldorf

Poetics of Encryption, curated by Nadim Samman, installation view, Galerie Rudolfinum, photo by Ondřej Polák

Exhibiting artists: Morehshin Allahyari, Emmanuel Van der Auwera, BCAA system, Gillian Brett, Daniel Burda, Juliana Cerqueira Leite, Julian Charrière, Joshua Citarella, Clusterduck, Kate Crawford, Sterling Crispin, Simon Denny, enorê, František Fekete, Mathias Gramoso, Tilman Hornig, Anežka Horová, Vladan Joler, Daniel Keller, Andrea Khôra, Jonna Kina, Oliver Laric, Eva & Franco Mattes, Jürgen Mayer H., Carsten Nicolai, Trevor Paglen, Matthias Planitzer, Jon Rafman, Sebastian Schmieg, Charles Stankievech, Troika, Nico Vascellari, Dušan Zahoranský

Jonna Kina, Secret Words and Related Stories, INDEX Art and Technology Biennial curated by Joel Valabrega, installation view, Forum Arte Braga (7.5-30.5.2026), photo by Bruno Lança, exhibiting artists: Bod Mellor, Cemile Sahin, Gabriel Abrantes, Hito Steyerl, Jonna Kina, Mira Mann, Shuang Li, Stine Deja, P. Staff, Pauline Boudry & Renate Lorenz, Pedro Gossler, Raven Chacon

Secret Words and Related Stories installation view, Greatest Hits, exhibited artists: Cyprien Gaillard, Francis Alÿs, Gary Hume, Hannah Black, Jonna Kina, Lucia Nimcova, Pierre Huyghe, curators: Evelyn Raudsepp, Maria Arusoo, Maria Helen Känd, Maria-Kristiina Soomre, Marten Esko, Siim Preiman, Triin Metsla, Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia, EKKM, Tallinn (18.6.2022-7.8.2022)

Secret Words and Related Stories, 4K, 20 min12 sec, installation view, AMA Gallery, 4.-24.3.2016

Secret Words and Related Stories, installation view, part of Poetics of Encryption exhibition, curated by Nadim Samman, KW institute of Contemporary Art, Berlin 16.2-26.5.2024

Secret Words and Related Stories is a set of anonymously collected passwords and the stories behind them. The entry point is personal “secrets” and security, and their place in contemporary society. To examine independence—a limited kind of independence—is to unravel what security means to the identity, a kind of coding of physical history and memory to access all kinds of commerce and services in the virtual world. That key is compressed into these fragments of language (passwords) that areunpackaged through the work. In the video, young actors between the ages of 12 and 16 years stand in front of a red backdrop and read from a sheet of paper, narrating personal confessions, childhood memories, and clichéd rationalities. These are thoughtful, humorous, and emotional stories about a chosen word that often discloses personal information, which is the antithesis of its purpose. The 74 passwords and corresponding stories featured in this video are also collected in an eponymous book, published in the style of a paperback novel.

Secret Words and Related Stories, behind the scene, pigment print, framed

Credits of the film:
Director & editor JONNA KINA
Actors EMILIA BENFORD, JESSI COLLIER, MARKUS RÄISÄNEN, HEIKKI PENTTINEN, MARTIN ÖRN, CLEOPATRA HÖGBACKA
Sound design JOHANNES VARTOLA
Translators SEIJA NYHOLM, EMILIA NORLAMO
Graphic design TOMMI VASKO
Supported by AVEK, ARTS PROMOTION CENTRE, FINNISH CULTURAL FOUNDATION
Special thanks: All the anonymous participants, The English School, Seija Nyholm, Iida Frima, Egor Garanin, Maksim Kasatkin, Fia Leminen, Pratham Talonen, Jasmine M’rabet