Artist: Gun Holmström (FI)
Genre: Art Film
Finland, 1999 / 12:45 min (Beta SP), colour & sound

The Film
The film is a documentary about a pregnant woman, who is carrying a child for her close friends, a male couple. One of them is the father of the child. Society easily condemns a woman who lends her body and gives up her child to a gay couple. The biological mother tells plainly and openly about her situation and feelings.

Gun Holmström
Gun Holmström (b. 1964 in Porvoo, Finland) lives and works in Helsinki. Her works include single video and installations. Gun Holmström has received critical acclaim for her video portraits that examine "the strange everyday world", that the artist sees around her. These works, shot in a style that sits somewhere between documentary film and home video, introduce us to characters that may be considered as being outside the norm of society. In Holmström's oeuvre, the aesthetic and the ethical are one. She explores the complex web of contradictory human emotions and situations, and addresses current social and moral issues. While Holmström often starts out with very personal experiences, the essential element is the humane nature of social communication; the individual as a social and communal being remains at the core. Gun Holmström graduated in 1993 from Turku Art Academy (FI). She is currently studying in a 2 year MA program in "Context and Media" at Valand School of Fine Art in Gothenburg (SE). Her video works have been exhibited in several international solo and group exhibitions. Holmström participated in the May 2003 residency with Gillian Wearing at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in Florida. A portfolio is available at www.gnuh.net.